The Drudge Report and weak dollar coverage

Eamon Javers of Politico.com writes Wednesday about the increasing coverage of the weak dollar in an unlikely place — DrudgeReport.com, where there have been 18 stories so far this month on the topic.

Javers writes, “But Drudge does have the ability to put news items on the radar screen of major media outlets and political figures in Washington. And other people are paying attention to Drudge, too: A source close to the U.S. national security community said that Drudge’s link to a story in the [London] Independent earlier this month instantly grabbed the attention of senior American officials.

“The story raised the prospect that foreign governments were in talks to replace the U.S. dollar as the default currency for oil trading. Any kind of coordinated attack on the value of the dollar could be seen as a national security threat, and defense and intelligence officials were curious about the source of the anti-dollar rumors that day.

“On Tuesday, Drudge spotlighted a one-paragraph item from the Agence France-Presse news service titled ‘We are ‘worried’ about weak dollar: Eurogroup chief.’

“That same day, the dollar hit a new 14-month low against the euro, with the continental currency trading as high as $1.4994 against the dollar. That represented a continuation of the greenback’s steady slide this year: The euro traded at $1.25 against the dollar as recently as March.

“Drudge’s interest in the brutal year for the buck is intensifying. According to a search of the website DrudgeReportArchives.com, which is not affiliated with Drudge himself, the Internet pioneer has already posted more stories on the dollar in October than he did the month before, when he posted links to 13 stories about the currency.”

Read more here. Naturally, Drudge has posted a link to the Javers stort with the headline, “POLITICO BLAMES DRUDGE ON DOLLAR COLLAPSE…”