An interesting piece by Michael Sherer in today’s Salon uses the events surrounding Arizona Sen. John McCain’s “Bomb Iran” controversy from an event in Murrells Inlet last month to discuss how Matt Drudge may be setting the agenda for the 2008 primaries. We found it pretty interesting that nobody in the MSM cared about what McCain said until it was plastered at the top of The Drudge Report.

John McCain’s “Bomb Iran” scandal almost never happened.

The reporters covering the Murrells Inlet, S.C., rally last month, where McCain jokingly parodied the old Beach Boys song “Barbara Ann” with the words “Bomb Iran,” didn’t think the joke was news. Only one writer, Scott Harper, from the local Georgetown Times, mentioned it in his story, and he relegated it to the 17th paragraph. “I didn’t think Jay Leno would be talking about it,” he said.

The Associated Press reporter on-site ignored the joke altogether, and focused his story on McCain’s pledge to brief the public about Iraq on a biweekly basis if elected president. The reporter for the Sun-News, a local Myrtle Beach newspaper, also led with the press conference pledge and left out the joke. But then someone — we don’t know who, exactly — sent a carefully edited video of the joke to Matt Drudge, who runs the most popular news blog in America and the premier outlet for anonymous political leaks from Republican insiders.

The next day, the Drudge Report headline blared, “McCain Sings: ‘Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran.’” Hours later, the Associated Press echoed Drudge by sending a new story over the wire, headlined “McCain Jokes About Bombing.” By then the news was everywhere. Leno, Jon Stewart, each major television network and the big newspapers eventually mentioned the clip. That afternoon, McCain was caught on defense at a campaign appearance in Las Vegas, telling reporters to “lighten up and get a life.”

As news events go, the “Bomb Iran” episode was surprisingly typical for the 2008 campaign. (MICHAEL SHERER, Salon.com)