Remember the good old days, when Geraldo still looked sleazy?

[civildisoBDence]

They're household names: Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, Geraldo Rivera. It's undeniable that Drudge and Limbaugh have become media giants, exerting substantial influence on American politics and journalism, and Geraldo has had his own unique impact as well.

Earlier this week, I compared Limbaugh's influence to that of three of America's most renowned media figures: editor Horace Greeley (of "Go West, young man" fame,) publisher William Randolph Hearst (the subject of Citizen Kane,) and Walter Cronkite. Rush's influence is news itself; he's been all over the mainstream media during this election cycle, not as a newsman, but as a newsmaker.

Today, in the wake of Drudge breaking the story that Prince Harry has been on the front lines in Afghanistan, Great Britain's Telegraph is calling Matt "the most powerful journalist in the world." While the British press kept the Prince's secret deployment to the front a secret for two months, Drudge immediately ran the story, leading to a decision to bring Harry back home. Because of Drudge, both the Prince and his comrades-in-arms became the Taliban's top targets.

I admire both Limbaugh and Drudge for their accomplishments, but there are a couple of distinctions that should be made when discussing them and their ilk.

First, neither is a journalist. Limbaugh is equal parts commentator and entertainer; Drudge is primarily a publisher, but also a gossipmonger in the tradition of Walter Winchel and Hedda Hopper. NBC's Andrea Mitchell nailed it when, in reference to the Prince Harry story, she described Drudge's arena as "news and gossip. Nowadays, entertainers and gossip columnists can be, and often are, more influential than any journalist. It was a little-known Drudge, after all, who broke the Monica Lewinsky story and nearly brought down a president after Newsweek had spiked the story, which was uncovered by Michael Isikoff, not Drudge.

Second, influence and integrity are two very different ( and increasingly distanced) things. Limbaugh has no scruples whatsoever when it comes to demonizing liberalism; he regularly accuses liberals of wanting to see more American soldiers killed in Iraq, for example. And after years of cheerleading for the War on Drugs and ridiculing "dope-smoking hippies," Rush's infamous narcotics addiction revealed the deepest kind of hypocrisy.

As for Drudge, make no mistake: in exposing Prince Harry's whereabouts, Drudge put lives, and potentially a vital mission, in jeopardy. It's one thing to act as a gadfly countering the niceties of the mainstream media; it's quite another to undermine a military mission. With Drudge, Drudge comes first--though to be fair, the reclusive publisher is no amoral self-promoter in the "vain" of a Sean Hannity or Ann Coulter.

Which brings me to Geraldo. Once a serious network investigative reporter, Rivera took the low road when he ABC left to host a daytime TV talk show a bit closer to Jerry Springer's than to Phil Donahue's. That infamous brawl between white supremacists and black activists (which Geraldo seems proud of!) was tabloid television at its ugliest.

But Geraldo reached his lowest point in 2003, when he revealed the position and plans of American troops in Iraq, leading the Pentagon to give his employer, Fox News, an ultimatum: yank him out of Iraq, or we will.

When Katie Couric took over the CBS Evening News, she chose to invite Rush Limbaugh to appear on that paragon of broadcast journalism, where Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow once sat. The Drudge Report is now a must-read for a whole new generation of American journalists.

And Geraldo is still employed by Fox News.

Either American journalism has lowered its standards considerably, or Geraldo has raised his.

I'll leave that for you to decide.

http://newsprism.wordpress.com/|Cross-posted here, with links>