Gonzo Journalism

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Ixod Instanbul shares his thoughts on professional sports...

What is gonzo journalism? Well, take everything you know about traditional news coverage, then take a side, argue fervently in favor of your views, dismiss those who disagree as insane or evil (bonus points for both) and demonize the opposition to the point that every story becomes the ultimate battle of good vs. evil.

Oh, and feel free to drop as many four-letter words as you like. Mind-altering chemicals and a sense of superiority are highly encouraged. Expect those being demonized to write off such obviously biased attacks as being created by a Propaganda Machine. But that's just what fascists would say, right?

The other wiki describes gonzo journalism as "a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative."

Gonzo journalism developed during the 1960s, spearheaded by outlaw journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson wrote very stylized news stories told from the first person perspective (most news stories are written in third person) that were often sarcastic, vulgar and extremely negative of his opposition, including his personal arch-nemesis, U.S. President Richard Nixon.

Gonzo news articles are normally told similar to a fictional story format, with the writer acting as narrator of the story with a focus not only on people and events but also personal commentary on the history and morality of said subjects. The purpose of the story is to sway the reader to the writer's side by championing a person, group or outlook on life and ridiculing those opposed to such things. Usually the side being championed is portrayed as the underdog fighting against the status quo. Even stories that aren't attack pieces per se still treat mundane news events with irreverence and contempt.

Very obviously Writer on Board. Expect the writer to see themselves as an Intrepid Reporter whose duty is to pull back the curtain and expose The Masquerade. In fiction, the gonzo journalist can be a mouthpiece for La Résistance or a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, often both.

Examples of Gonzo Journalism include:

Comic Books

• Transmetropolitan: Main character Spider Jerusalem is a very obvious Hunter S. Thompson expy, based in some ill-defined future setting. Jerusalem violently accosts his enemies, uses his position to topple government officials and rally the masses out of their mindless funk. He clearly believes journalism is a weapon against evil and corrupt power.

Film

• McDougal from The Paper qualifies. Of course, the enemy he demonizes is the parking commissioner.

Newspaper Comics

• Duke in the early years of Doonesbury, so much that he's named after Hunter S. Thompson's alter ego Raoul Duke. Later in the strip's run he becomes a free-range influence peddler.
• In the early years of Bloom County, the character Limekiller was added to the cast. Gary Trudeau complained the character was too similar to Duke in Doonesbury, which Berkeley Breathed admitted in his "Complete Bloom County" collection. Written out of the strip not long after Opus the Penguin became the comic's Breakout Character.
  • Milo Bloom often wrote heavily-biased news articles filled with screaming headlines and personal attacks on corrupt government officials. Thompson would have been proud.

Literature

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: Pretty much the Trope Codifier. A stream-of-conscious novel written by Hunter S. Thompson in the early 1970s chronicling his experiences covering news stories in Las Vegas. Although ostensibly about his coverage of a motorcycle race and a police convention, Thompson used the setting to criticize what he saw as vile in American culture as well as lament the death of the ideals he and the hippies aspired to, but failed to see realized, in the previous decade.
• Holidays In Hell: A collection of essays and news articles by P.J. O'Rourke criticizing international corruption and populist guerrilla movements, which he saw as misguided and ultimately futile.
• The protagonist of Bryan Young's Lost at the Con is a self-declared gonzo journalist, usually on the political beats, who gets sent to cover Griffin*Con. At first he's very disparaging of the con and the kind of people who go there (both fans and guests) but eventually winds up defending them against the kind of JerkJocks who pick on people that just want to have fun and be themselves.

Web Comic

• Ixod Instanbul in At Arms Length, an expy of both Hunter S. Thompson AND Spider Jerusalem. Views the world in black and white and sees himself as a messenger appointed to bring the truth to the masses.

Real Life

• Of course, Hunter S. Thompson.
• P.J. O'Rourke is often viewed as a conservative counterpart to Thompson. He claims Thompson and H.L. Menken as influences, and looks favorably on Thompson.
• Tom Wolfe is also seen as a major influence on gonzo journalism.
• All the press of Argentina financed by the government. In it, the Kirchners are national heroes and even saints, the opposition work for either foreign sources or the dictatorship of 40 years ago (or both), and news that may not fit the government desires (such as an inflation over 30% or the vicepresident accused of criminal activities) are simply ommited.