The news service focuses on Pennsylvania politics.

By DAVID J. RALIS
Courier Times

Think of it as if Matt Drudge, the guru of instantaneous Washington, D.C., Web journalism, moved to Pennsylvania.

Featuring anonymous e-mail tips and anonymous writers, www.Politicspa.com - a Web site devoted solely to this state's political scene - is becoming a big online source for such news, according to political watchers and the site's editor, who goes by the pseudonym Sy Snyder.

Snyder refused a phone interview and would only answer questions via e-mail.

"We consider every e-mail we get an anonymous tip and have quickly created a diverse group of people who are able to tell us what we need to know," he wrote. "We decided to be anonymous for several reasons, such as being able to print things we normally wouldn't be able to say, and providing a level of intrigue you normally don't get from news sites."

Drudge became famous for publishing accurate anonymous tips about beltway politics on his Web site and Snyder said he hopes to do the same.

Can the information be trusted?

"We readily admit that some of us here at PoliticsPA.com are not completely unbiased," Snyder admits on the site.

Yet, he insisted in his e-mail that readers can find the truth for themselves. His site also features daily links to newspaper Web stories from across the state and press releases that are posted as they come in from Pennsylvania politicians.

"As other news outlets quote from us and we continue to report accurate political news ahead of other sources, we're sure we'll be increasingly credible," Snyder wrote. "We've beaten AP [Associated Press] by hours quite a few times since the site launched in October."

The site is registered to a company in Hoboken, N.J. However, Snyder said it's only a post office box that's shared with a sister site for New Jersey - PoliticsNJ.com. There are similar sites in New York, New Hampshire and Vermont, he added.

David J. Ralis can be reached at 215-269-5051 or dralis@phillyBurbs.com.

Monday, May 13, 2002