Going Gonzo; The New Media Order

Investigative journalism, as many people see it, is as American as apple pie. That is if that apple pie is filled with corruption, scandals and lies that is. One of the first journalists to dig deep to find the truth was actually a woman who hardly fit the idea of an investigator. Nelly Bly got the ball rolling on how to unethically get the information needed to get stories that shook the nation. Her key flaw was the fact that she had to pretend to be someone else in order to get information she needed, but still she captivated young and curious minds that were hungry for knowledge. Thus investigative journalism was born into a weapon against powerful politicians and leaders who thought that their constituents would never figure them out. As it would turn out that the expression of facts that brought down these leaders got people talking, and people love to talk about the big news. It took a combination of investigative journalism and strong ideals to give birth to the most powerful new tool in journalism. As conceived by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo journalism took the properties of investigating heavily into a story, then interpreting it in a highly touted manner. The basic definition of gonzo journalism is a style of journalism which is written subjectively, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first person narrative. Although some have looked at gonzo journalism as a satire, it has proven to be a powerful tool that has brought people a better understanding of how politicians and other groups work.

In order to understand gonzo journalism, one must first go straight to the source. Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is an American writer/journalist born in Aspen Colorado. Thompson was always a revolutionist, from a young age he took his ambitions to higher level. Dr. Thompson was at the center of attention long before his books and articles fascinated generations of people. As the story goes, in the early 1960’s, Thompson had spoke about running for the sheriff of Aspen. He was never entirely sure he wanted to run, but enough people came to him with hopes he would run. Here is where Thompson got his national attention. The party affiliation he ran under was not a Democrat or Republican. The Aspen Freak Party Uprising (AFPU) was born with Thompson as its poster child. What made the AFPU so different, other than its name, was the basis of power. Thompson had no clue how to be a sheriff so as he put it, “My idea was to become sheriff and then name a sub-sheriff and become a sort of ombudsman and give my salary over to the sheriff, whom I would hire… So the idea was to run, and not become sheriff, but to turn the political process around to the point, to the idea of Freak Power.” Thompson had the attention of the media all over him and although he lost it created quite a stir. Stirring up things is something Thompson would learn to love.

The first account of gonzo journalism came in 1970 when Hunter was covering the Kentucky Derby. Thompson recalled about the event as a missed deadline that would surely be the last thing he would ever write, but as it turned out, people loved to read “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.” From there on out, gonzo journalism became a sacred topic. Multiple top selling books would stem from its creation, including “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” which would be made into a hit motion picture, “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail of ‘72” and “Hell’s Angels.” A combination of the three and many other books immortalized the shocking mind of Hunter Thompson. For many years Thompson would take to colleges and universities to talk politics to a younger generation. Many accounts were kept of his interviews and finally published in 2009 in the book “Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interview with Hunter S. Thompson.” Written by Christopher Hitchens and edited by late Thompson’s wife Anita. The book is praised by Thompson’s supporters as “A lovingly assembled compendium of brilliance, incentive, and outrageous interviews the legendary Hunter S. Thompson.” As for Hunter himself, he died in 2005 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Thompson was 67 and was “tormented in his final years” wife Anita said. He was found by his son outside of his home in Woody Creek Colorado.

The greatest single piece of gonzo journalism came in 1971 with Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” A book based on Thomson’s trip to Las Vegas for Rolling Stone magazine to cover a motor cycle race. As it would turn out, Thompson went into deep details into his drug use throughout the trip and used his alias as the main character. Raul Duke and Dr. Gonzo were the main characters of the book, modeled off of Hunter as Raul Duke, and his friend Ralph Gleason as Dr. Gonzo. To this day Raul Duke is still listed in Rolling Stone magazine as the managing sports editor and Gleason as the gardening editor, mostly to pay tribute and get a laugh. The story is account of notes sent in by Thompson into the front office in Los Angeles of daily activates. It was picked up as a series that ran in 1970 and then published as a book in 1971. The term gonzo comes from “an old Boston word meaning a little bit crazy and off the wall. Sort of a high crazy. Demented crazy.” Well as history took it, the name stuck as Fear and Loathing hit it big as the face of the counter culture in the 70’s and lead the way through the 80’s too. In the short series that ran, viewer readership was through the roof, which ultimately pushed Thompson into the decision into publishing the book. Big names in Hollywood would see the book as hit at the box office, so Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam took the movie on as his project and directed the movie starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. For journalists everywhere, this was a tremendous look into gonzo journalism, but not the first. In 1980, two other big names in Bill Murray and Peter Boyle played the roles of Hunter Thompson and his traveling companion Lazlo in the film based on Thompson’s book “Where the Buffalo Roam.” Once again a deep look into gonzo journalism was taken, this staring a counter culture all in itself. It was after this string of popular films that gonzo journalism took off. People everywhere were interested in every story Dr. Thompson would write.

With some of the most fueled people marching behind him, Thompson’s word was the real deal. His most famous quote comes from a 1975 meeting with students at UCLA when Thompson said “I wouldn’t recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” This lead to many more interviews with Thompson and gave a louder voice to him and his cult following. His biggest criticism was after all his drug use though. In a 1974 interview with Playboy magazine, when his interviewer asked if he sat down and simply went on a drug rampage to write, Thompson replied to his critics, “No. It’s impossible to write anything down in my mind. Wild Turkey and tobacco are the only drugs I use regularly when I write. But I tend to write at night, so when the wheels slowed down, I occasionally indulged in a little speed- which I deplore and do not advocate.” In what would become a popular piece for the magazine, Thompson had come straight out to say that he did do all the crazy things he said, but he did not advocate them. People became outraged at all the use, but the culture came around to join Thompson. After all, the 70’s were a drug ridden time in American history.

Thompson, in the eyes of the public, was viewed as the leader of the drug culture. To boot he was using gonzo journalism to get his stories out. In a 1978 interview with S.M. Jackson for Commonwealth Times, Thompson let his use of drugs be known again when Jackson asked when the last time he tripped was, Hunter replied, “I’m under the influence of LSD right now and have been for days. I’ve learned to handle it. Drugs are good for me.” After the interviews release, people were again outraged. But Hunter had heard enough about it and decided to embrace his “power” as the face of the counter culture. His primary weapon to tell was of course gonzo journalism. But the use of gonzo to inform took a huge loop in 1972, when a new basis was touched on.

On the verge of one of the most heated political races in quite some time, Dr. Thompson went to the heads of Rolling Stone and realized something, this may be a music magazine for the youth, but we can turn this into a powerful political system. So he pitched his idea, and the executives loved it. They loved it so much that they put him on the political beat, despite him trying to pawn it off to some other writer. So in 1972, Thompson joined the media to follow the Democratic candidate George McGovern. His notes too were formulated into a book, and it came to be known “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail of ’72.” To this day it is still considered the foremost leader in political journalism by many. The New York Times said about the book “The best account yet published of what it feels like to be out there in the middle of the American political process.” In his notes, Thompson included every bit of detail that came from the day, whether it mattered to the political process of not was irrelevant, the book still got people to understand. Thompson jumps around in the book from being at democratic camps with McGovern to Nixon’s campaign. Thompson was perhaps Nixon’s biggest opponent. The book would shed light into how cynical Richard Nixon really was. While doing an interview with J.P. O’ Rourke for the 25th anniversary for Rolling Stone Hunter spoke about then Attorney General Edwin Meese under Ronald Regan. Hunter said of Meese in the interview, “I believe that Ed Meese- being a person without any honor, a fat bastard, really a congenital cheap pig in the style of and on the level if Richard Nixon- should be locked in a concrete basement with an elk. And the elk should be ram-fed full of acid before he’s put in there” (O’Rourke). Just to show the impact over a decade after Nixon left office, Thompson was still bitter at the process that Nixon put him through. The gonzo got him, and Nixon would stay above him, never actually going after him after his time in office was up. As it would turn out, Hunter Thompson was selected to write Nixon’s obituary in Rolling Stone, the article went something like this;

“If the right people had been in charge of Nixon’s funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.”

In this day and age with Dr. Gonzo himself has passed and left a legacy rotted with sweet stories of a deprived man who simply thought too little of the world, who is left to carry gonzo on to the next generation? Or the next? As it would seem gonzo is dying, in the sense that no one has taken it up in the new media. Underground sites like Hunter’s blog which is run by his wife do keep accounts and present articles in the same fashion, but in big media, there is little gonzo to be found. To search for a gonzo journalist today would be a lot like finding a Bush supporter in 2008, it is near impossible to find. Some believe that new Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi has the ability and style of a gonzo journalist. He is very familiar with Thompson and his work, seeing as Matt is a political writer for the magazine and has met Thompson before.

In the monthly magazine, Tabbi was given raving credit for his work covering both sides of the race, until leaning towards Obama. His article “Year of the Rat: A 2008 Campaign Diary” got raving reviews from readers. On the Web page for it readers wrote in saying “Taibbi, you’re the only reason I visit this stupid Rolling Stone Web Site with it’s horrible reviews. You could be the next Hunter Thompson. keep up the awesome work!”  Sadly this is the only sign of life in Hunter’s case.