I wouldn’t give Drudge that much credit

But if he did cause last week’s Wall Street sell-off with a single headline, then it makes a darn good case study for someone working on theory about things like “informational cascades” and other indications of online groupthink, and for someone looking into the influence of individual non-traditional online news sources.

Lucky for me, I’m not that someone, but it wouldn’t be too hard to work a thesis — or at least a solid research paper — out of this week’s media coverage of the market.

More:

• ABC News: The Drudge Report’s Impact on America
• Lucas Grindley: Headlines that sell (or sell off)