National Press Club in history: The birth of Internet 'news'

By 1998, Internet news was just beginning to make a foothold in journalism. The dimensions of its impact were still far off, as was what journalism rules and norms it would follow. Would online journalists work with the same standards as reporters in traditional print and broadcast services?

The National Press Club's president that year, Doug Harbrecht of Business Week magazine, unwittingly set himself up as the lightning rod for this issue.

He invited Matt Drudge, founder and chief contributor for the online "Drudge Report," to be a Luncheon speaker. The "Drudge Report" was just beginning to make itself felt in the political and journalism worlds, and Drudge's casual style and looseness with the facts already had made him controversial with journalists and a hero among some conservatives.

“It set off a firestorm –- first when traditional journalists were outraged that Drudge from the online world was invited to speak,” Harbrecht said. “Then from Drudge fans, conservatives and online denizens who felt Drudge wasn’t given the respect and fairness he deserved.”

Harbrecht withstood a petition drive among members demanding that the Luncheon be cancelled. Drudge showed up in his signature fedora and parried questions fired at him from Harbrecht and the audience.

This was the first time that online bloggers such as Drudge were engaged by traditional print and broadcast journalists in a full and frank discussion of standards, fairness and efficacy, Harbrecht said.

“You can say online ‘won’ and continues to win,” Harbrecht said. “But Drudge said things at that lunch that will always be quoted whenever he is in the news, like ‘It’s okay to be right 70 percent of the time.’”

Harbrecht went on to be director of Kiplinger Magazine’s website, while Drudge continues to be a reclusive influence in conservative media 20 years later. But the luncheon was the birth of a controversy that still rocks journalism and politics.

This is another in a series provided by National Press Club historian Gil Klein. Dig down anywhere in the Club’s 110-year history, and you will find some kind of significant event in the history of the world, the nation, Washington, journalism and the Club itself. Many of these events were caught in illustrations that tell the stories.