TPM beats Drudge by a mile.

People around the blogosphere, at least on the liberal side have been harping on Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post for his item explaining how much Matt Drudge just rules his world.

Yesterday was a typical recent day on the Drudge Report -- the single most influential source for how the presidential campaign is covered in the country.

In the banner headline spot for most of the day was a picture of entertainer Barbra Streisand touting a Beverly Hills fundraiser for Barack Obama -- not exactly the sort of headline that the Illinois senator wants as chum for the cable channels 49 days before the election.

Two other stories never merited attention from Drudge: a claim by a senior aide to John McCain that the Arizona senator had invented the BlackBerry and a statement by McCain surrogate Carly Fiorina that neither McCain nor Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be equipped to serve as CEO of a major U.S. company.

Cillizza was widely panned for this piece for a number of reasons. One of them was the contention that he was driving coverage and also attacking the media at the same time. For instance Steve Bennen puts the logic failure perfectly,

I wonder if Cillizza is failing to connect the dots -- how is it that media outlets are being driven by Drudge, and being skewered by Drudge for their so-called bias, at the same time? In other words, if the cable networks are getting their ideas from Drudge, what is it, exactly, that Drudge is rebelling against? How is he speaking truth to power if he's helping call the shots in the first place?

The argument about why Drudge is influential is also rather circular. If no one in the tm paid attention to him would he have as big an impact? No. Most of his stories come from the tm and he hypes them just before they come out. Is this really worthwhile? Again, No. In contrast to Drudge who is pushing stories of little substance and commonly little merit there is a sight who deserves to be the one that news rooms check for breaking stories. TPM.

Josh Marshall at TPM has done a great job of building up a site that breaks real and important stories. For instance they were all over the Troopergate issue far in advance of the pick of Sarah Palin. They have also been providing regular updates to story. TPM also broke the most recent McCain flub regarding the Prime Minister of Spain. TPM is dong substantive work on important things.

If the news went with TPM as its guide instead of drudge the election would have a totally different complexion. Imagine if all of the McCain screw ups and inconsistancies were actually pointed out to people? Imagine if all of the issues regarding Palin and her Cheneyesque attitude towards government were the lead stories of the day? The best thing about tpm is that the stories they run turn out to be true. No more misleading rumors covered on tv would be a blessing.

So if Chris Cillizza wants to extoll the praises of one Matt Drudge he should be absolutely in love with TPM. TPM does drudge but with higher standards and a regard fro the truth.