Tag: journalism

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All the world’s a stage. — William Shakespeare, As You Like It

This is not journalism, it’s performance art. — FOX News contributor Kat Timpf on pre-approved questions at a Biden press conference

In the old days of print journalism, the importance of a story was not measured in retweets, trending, uploads, shares, likes, or views, but rather in “column inches.” This is self-explanatory, but is also indicative of the fact that journalistic coverage in the print era was a zero-sum game. That is, the more column inches are devoted to story A, the fewer there are available for story B. (more…)

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Deborah Cohen
Last Call at the Hotel Imperial:
The Reporters who Took on a World at War
New York: Random House, 2022 (more…)

Recently-published private correspondence by Matt Hancock, who was the UK’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care during the Covid lockdowns, reveals that he encouraged the government to “frighten” the public into submission to the measures, and that he found the requirement for travelers to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival “hilarious,” among other revelations.

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The story is not about me, and actually it isn’t about Matt Hancock as an individual. The story is about collateral damage. — Isabel Oakeshott, English journalist

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies. — Fleetwood Mac

If there is one lesson to be learned from the recent Covid pandemic, it is that British public opinion is as dirigible as a child’s party balloon on a string. Just as when someone in a crowd looks fixedly up to the sky, followed by the chap next to him, repeated by the family next to him, until finally everyone is looking up at nothing, classic crowd psychology also applies to information. Divert the attention of a few, and you will get everyone’s attention, like aquarium fish following the alpha. (more…)

Brett, aka Brianna (last name unknown)

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Last Saturday afternoon at a public park east of Manchester in northern England, a 16-year-old male whose first name at birth was “Brett” died from multiple stab wounds. I don’t know Brett’s legal surname at the moment, because the press has refrained from reporting it.

At some point — from what I am able to infer from news reports, it was less than a year ago — Brett decided that his name was “Brianna” and declared that he was a female rather than a male. (more…)

Former Downing Street Press Secretary Alastair Campbell, who still imagines that people like him control what the masses think.

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The late comedian Bill Hicks had a skit in which he described the average Joe turning on the TV for the news and getting: Death! Famine! War! Disease! Aaaaargh! The guy turns off the TV and looks out of his back window to hear quiet, apart from the gentle drone of crickets. He thinks, “Where the hell is all this going down?” Another comedic Bill, Bill Burr, updated this observation recently on YouTube political channel Triggernometry. On Twitter, he said, everyone is screaming at one another. Then you go outside for a walk and everyone is smiling at each other. (more…)

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Part 7 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 6 here)

7. Final Wisdom: The Truth Was Not in Him!

“We’d be fools not to ride this strange torpedo to the end!” (more…)

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Part 6 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 5 here, Part 7 here)

6. Gonzo: Paleocon, Neocon, or Just Con?

I had just begun to doubt some of my strongest convictions when I stumbled upon [Colin Wilson’s The Outsider]. But rather than being wrong, I think that I just don’t express my rightness correctly. — Hunter S. Thompson (more…)

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Part 5 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 4 here, Part 6 here)

5. Gonzo is the Secret: The Power of Positive Gonzo

Constant Readers will know that I love to find me some traces of Neville in any iconic figure, and sure enough, it turns out there’s plenty of it here. (more…)

Thompson when he was running for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado in 1970.

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Part 4 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here, Part 5 here)

4. Father of Fake News – or OT (Original Troll)? . . . The Myth of the Golfing Douchebag

I have discovered the secret of writing fiction, calling it impressionistic journalism, and selling it to people who want “something fresh.” — Hunter S. Thompson

Any man who still has a residue of honor will be very careful not to become a journalist. — Dr. Josef Goebbels (more…)

Hunter passed out drunk while covering an event as a journalist circa 1960.

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Part 3 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 4 here)

3. Gonzo: What Happened? — Decline and Fall of Gonzo

As Thompson charts Hemingway’s road from literary brilliance to failure and suicide, he maps out his own path for the future. (more…)

Hunter S. Thompson during his time in the Air Force.

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Part 2 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)

2. What is Gonzo? — High White Notes

“It has finally come home to me that I am not going to be either the Fitzgerald or the Hemingway of this generation . . . I am going to be the Thompson of this generation, and that makes me more nervous than anything else I can think of.” (more…)

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Part 1 of 7 (Part 2 here)

David S. Wills
High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism
St. Andrews: Beatdom Books, 2021

“He’s a drunk and he’s a doper who has got a style which is very dangerous for journalism students to pick up on.” — Harlan Ellison, 1979[1]

David Wills comes not to bury Hunter Thompson, but to praise him; ultimately, he does a pretty good job of both. (more…)