Matt Drudge

WHEN Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner revealed in a recent column that he'd soon be changing his name to Christine Daniels, the piece quickly became the No. 1 draw on the newspaper's website. From across cyberspace the readers came. Overwhelmingly, they arrived after spotting this titillating link on a news site called the Drudge Report: "L.A. Times Shock: 'I am a Transsexual Sportswriter.' " Hard not to click on that one.

Michael Wolff is over journalism. The media columnist for Vanity Fair thinks that the ailing vocation has gotten in the way of what modern info seekers really crave: news. As he tells the story, in recent decades the people who call themselves journalists have bloated the news with their self-importance and their desire for prestige, losing sight of what's interesting. Then the Internet arrived and gave people a faster, more efficient way to get their info fix. In a decade that's seen the expansion of the Internet, cable news, cellphones and social networking, most young people are about as likely to buy a newspaper as a Walkman.

Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat! It's the speed of Matt Drudge's mind. It's the fingers pelting a plastic keyboard at http://www.drudgereport.com. It's the velocity of the verbal volleys he lobs into the Oval Office from his cheap ninth-floor apartment near Hollywood and Vine. Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat! "I like things big and loud," he trills, fiendishly clapping his hands together like a child in a highchair. "Speed is my weapon!"