The Drudge Report, a conservative American news aggregation website, has reportedly linked to Russian propaganda websites nearly 400 times over the last five years.
A new report by Media Matters found that Drudge Report had linked to websites such as TAAS.com, the largest Russian news agency, SputnikNews.com, a news agency established by the Russian government, and RT.com, a Russian international television network. All of these media companies are owned by or funded by the Russian government.
To track these numbers, Media Matters wrote a program to search through Drudge Report’s archives and collected all instances in which Russian websites were linked. The number of articles linking to Russian propaganda sites increased in 2015 to 79, jumping to 122 in 2016 amid the intense U.S. presidential race. The Drudge Report has linked to 45 such articles so far in 2017.
The right-wing news website launched in 1995 with a focus on Hollywood and Washington D.C. drama. Today, it is mainly aggregates hyperlinks to websites from around the world. The site was created and is still operated by Matt Drudge, a former Fox News television show host and radio personality.
H/T Media Matters
