During a Playbook Breakfast event with Politico’s Mike Allen, White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer lamented the effect of the Drudge Report on the news cycle.
“This is less true now than it was, but there is a pavlovian response from some media outlets,” Pfeiffer explained, noting that reporters often ask questions about a topic just because its on the Drudge Report.
Pfeiffer added that when he is asked about something on the Drudge Report he usually ridicules the reporter asking the question until they sheepishly back down.
Pfeiffer said that the Drudge effect can be damaging to the White House effort to communicate their message, even though he insisted he was “fairly ambivalent” to what Matt Drudge puts up on his site every day.
“The example being that anyone saying anything can get caught up in the spin cycle that is very damaging,” Pfeiffer continued. “It hurts what we’re trying to do but then it is very damaging to that individual person.”
