The rise of Internet scribe Matt Drudge is one of the more bizarre side effects of the Information Age we’re all still getting used to. Although the man who broke the Monica Lewinsky story isn’t always called a “journalist” by “real” reporters, he’s popular enough to have landed a new gig: commentator on the tabloid show “Fox Files.”

In his debut on Thursday, Drudge talked to Fox colleague Jon Scott in a studio “interview”: “When I broke the Lewinsky story, I remember tearing up, ’cause I knew my life would never be the same,” he said with an unbelievably straight face.

After some background on his career, Drudge bragged that the White House refused to answer questions about his web site, The Drudge Report. And he let loose with a zinger that’s not going to help his cause with the president or the media:

“There is currently a second intern that [sic] has been transferred out of the White House. No one’s reporting it. People are hushing it up… The second I get more verification, I’ll go with it.” — as if he were not speaking on camera to a national audience, and had not just gone with the story. (Other media outlets have not jumped on the “news.”)

Drudge’s brand of tease-the-sleaze journalism is what brought him into the public eye. As his soapbox gets bigger and bigger — he claims his web site gets 8 million visits a month plus the new TV job — we’re going to have to expect more peek-a-boo games. After all, we’re the ones who put him there.

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