LaSalle vows to outdo Drudge

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 11, 2002

An aspiring media mogul has thrown down the gauntlet to canny Matt Drudge. Mike LaSalle wants to pit his new Men's News Daily Website (www.mensnews daily.com) against the 5-year-old Drudge Report (www.drudgereport.com), the archetypal news and gossip site that has brought many a hair-raising rumor to full flower in print and broadcast outlets. "My site is better," LaSalle says. "It is easily 10 times better. And far more professional, thought-provoking and substantive." After four-and-a-half months, the site gets as many as 1,000 user "hits" daily.

Men's News follows the Drudge model, with news of the day and links to some 80 newspapers and journals. But it is tinctured by an unabashed manly agenda. There are a half-dozen "guy sites" and information on a whole constellation of masculine concerns, including links to "Masculinists Trinity," "Suffering Patriarchy" and "Jesus Men."

"The site is designed to highlight men's issues from an international and essentially conservative perspective," LaSalle says. "And to give men a place to pick up their daily news unfiltered by the kind of political correctness and pampered journalism common in most news outlets." He adds, "But we are emphatically not misogynists."

Indeed, the California-based LaSalle is married with three children. His views were tempered by several combative years in divorce court with his first wife. "I was totally dissed by the court system while gaining custody of my son," he says. "Combine that experience with how the media portrays men, particularly fathers -- as buffoons and morons -- and I knew I needed to create this news site."

With deep roots in Hollywood, Washington and New York, the Drudge Report gets between 3 million and 4 million hits on an average day, and logged 96 million in the last month, according to the site. Drudge's diverse compendium is almost pure content, save for the occasional photo and screaming headline. His daily gems, sourced and anonymous alike, cause regular hubbub in print and broadcast media.

"All the Drudge babies have grown up to be monsters," says Drudge, talking from his Florida office. "They're all trying."

LaSalle is unfazed. "Though still on a mission to "remind men they have issues different from women," LaSalle has begun his quest for news items of his own by soliciting material from the academic world. "We are men, we are conservative, we are awake and we are most definitely here," LaSalle added.

-- JH