Matt Drudge and his Drudge Report gained popularity in the late 1990s after a number of reports in which he beat the mainstream media by reporting first. Drudge gained notoriety when he was the first outlet to break the news which later became the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

We believe Drudge has crossed the line of fair, newworthy reporting and has endangered a soldier and military regiment in a combat zone.

England’s Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, has been serving on the front line with an army unit in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province since mid-December.

Prince Harry’s deployment plan had been disclosed to reporters, with no specific date, but was not reported previously because of an agreement between the Ministry of Defense and all major news organizations operating in Britain, including The Associated Press. The news blackout was intended to reduce the risk to the prince and his regiment.

The news embargo was broken, however, after reports of the prince’s deployment were leaked by an Australian magazine and a German newspaper, and then reported on a U.S. Web site, the Drudge Report.

Drudge could have and should have refrained from placing this news in a broad headline on his website. Drudge wanted a news story at the possible cost of endangering Prince Harry and his regiment. If so many news organizations could hold a story then Drudge should have taken the high road and followed suit. Leaking the story is inexcusable.

Harry’s work in Afghanistan has involved calling in airstrikes on Taliban positions as well as going out on foot patrols. He spent part of his deployment at a base 500 yards from Taliban positions, the military said.

We would like to give readers a little background on Matt Drudge, now successful but with a history as a bottom dwelling loser. Just say it’s my way of calling in an airstrike on Drudge.

Matthew Drudge, raised in Takoma Park, Maryland, near Washington, DC, is an only child. His parents are Jewish liberal-Democrats who both worked for the federal government.

His father Robert Drudge, a former social worker who owns the reference site www.refdesk.com  and his mother, a former staff attorney for Ted Kennedy, divorced when he was six. Drudge went to live with his mother.

He had few friends but was an avid news reader and radio talk show fan. In his book Drudge Manifesto, Drudge reports that he “failed his Bar Mitzvah”, and graduated 341st out of a class of 355 from Northwood High School in 1984, thus giving himself, in his words, a “more than adequate curriculum vitae for a post at 7-Eleven”.

He was arrested at age 15, on June 18, 1981, for making harassing telephone calls. After the arrest, Drudge went to live with his father on a farm on the eastern shore of Maryland. But before long his father sent Drudge back to Washington to live with his unemployed mother.

Drudge was then placed in psychiatric treatment with Jewish Social Services. It was recommended that the boy be sent to a boarding school, “and if not the last choice will be a foster home” (from court papers).

Matt Drudge an Ernie Pyle? No. Matt Drudge a prostitute? Indeed!