Did the US Government Attack Matt Drudge?
Matt Drudge, who runs the most popular news website in the U.S., sent out an ominous tweet on Thursday night:
Is the US government attacking DRUDGE REPORT? Biggest DDoS since site’s inception. VERY suspicious routing [and timing].
The founder and publisher of drudgereport.com tweeted a short time later:
Attacking coming from ‘thousands’ of sources. Of course none of them traceable to Fort Meade…
Fort Meade, Maryland, is home to the National Security Agency. The timing of the distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS—a means of disrupting internet websites that has been used successfully to shut down major sites including Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Tumblr and Reddit—coincided with the Obama administration’s announcement it was “retaliating” for alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
On his website Friday morning, he ran the headline: “Update: Attack on DrudgeReport.com Lasted 90 Minutes…”
The Drudge Report typically sees about 700 million hits a month, mostly from conservatives, and is the biggest provider of web traffic for The Daily Caller, Breitbart News, FOX News and other media outlets, including liberal outlets like CNN and NBC News. But, during the presidential campaign, the website saw more than 1 billion hits per month.
Simultaneously, the Russian state-run news network RT, formerly Russia Today, was experiencing a loss of service. It’s not clear if the two incidents are related, but the timing makes it seem likely.
The liberal mainstream media has, in the past, lashed out at NSA interference with the media and press. They have been mostly—and strangely—silent over this latest incident, however. A few right-wing media outlets, such as The Washington Times, have reported on Drudge’s tweets.
The matter was not addressed during the morning transition press briefing with incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Charisma Caucus has reached out to President-elect Donald Trump’s team seeking comment, but as of this writing, we have not received a response.
