A simple question about God tweeted Tuesday by Matt Drudge, creator of the popular Drudge Report, has turned into a slam session by some members of the national news media.
Drudge posted on his Twitter account: “Do you get the feeling God is no longer watching over America?”
It prompted of flood of responses by members of the media, led by Josh Greenman, an editor at the New York Daily News, who issued numerous tweets of his own, including:
- “He was so cool to allow slavery for so long.”
- “Dear @Drudge, do you get the feeling God was watching over us when 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam? Or, say, on 9/11?”
- “Do you get the feeling that God is still watching over us but is starting to get a bit resentful about all the stuff he gives us, like HDTV?”
- (He’s really hurt by Tebow signing with the Patriots.)
- “Do you get the feeling that God is no longer watching over the Blackberry OS?”
Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post noted: “Do you get the feeling that Zeus is watching America actually more than you’re really comfortable with?”
Ron Fournier, former Associated Press reporter and current editor at the National Journal, tweeted, “Pissed that #NSA is watching Him.”
And former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien noted: “Do you get the feeling God is no longer watching over America?”//um. What?”
At least one media voice who responded more positively was Laura Ingraham, who said, “He’s watching but too many have turned away from Him.”
The worldwide popularity of Drudge, a citizen journalist, has exploded in the past 15 years.
In 1998, the Drudge Report received 6 million page views in one month.
Today, that number has skyrocketed to 900 million.
“Clearly there is a hunger for unedited information, absent corporate considerations,” Drudge prophesied at the time. “Exalted minds … didn’t appear to have a clue what this Internet’s gonna do, what we’re going to make of it, what this is all going to turn into. But I have glimpses. …
“We have entered an era vibrating with the din of small voices. Every citizen can be a reporter, can take on the powers that be. The difference between the Internet, television, radio, magazines, newspapers is the two-way communication.
“The Net gives as much voice to a 13-year-old computer geek like me as to a CEO or speaker of the House. We all become equal. And you would be amazed what the ordinary guy knows.”
