When Digg.com started there were some rumors that Digg was build upon Drupal. While these rumors were quickly demystified, the point was that in Drupal it would not be too hard to build something like digg, as the search on google shows

Now over at Wired (I used to read the dead tree edition back in the 90-ies) it says:
Build a DIY Digg Clone with Drupal

Drupal developer Tony Mobily has built a new module for Drupal which enables anyone to start up their own Digg clone. You can grab the code and contribute to the project at drigg-code.org, or you can see it in action at drigg.org.

I am sure that some old mainstream media who are eager to get on the 2.oooh boat (or will drown!) are willing to use something like this. I am not the type that says "there is a module that will do exactly what your business problem is" as some do. Yes, more then 2k modules but most sites need drupal core, views, cck, workflow and a handful of custom modules. But having a Digg-clone.module around sure is easy for those that see "digg-clone" as their business objective.

The funny thing is, back in 2000 / 2001 there was no Drupal. We had drop.org in those days. Drop.org was running Drupal and in fact it was like a Digg without the fancy AJAX (and the overhyped budget.. and the big audience... and...)