Gonzo journalism

Gonzo journalism is a journalistic style, most famously used by Hunter S. Thompson. The name was coined by Bill Cardoso. Central to Gonzo journalism is the notion that journalism can be more truthful without strict observance of traditional rules of factual reportage. The best work in the genre is characterized by a novelistic twist added to reportage, with usual standards of accuracy subordinated to catching the mood of a place or event.

Gonzo journalism is an extension of the New Journalism championed by Tom Wolfe, Lester Bangs, and George Plimpton. "I don't get any satisfaction out of the old traditional journalist's view – 'I just covered the story. I just gave it a balanced view,'" Thompson said in an interview for Atlantic Unbound. "Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. You can't be objective about Nixon. How can you be objective about Clinton?" In Thompson's work there is frequently a distorted viewpoint brought on by the author's consumption of drugs and alcohol (usually recorded in the article for posterity).

Other writers whose work may be categorized as "gonzo" include P. J. O'Rourke and Timothy Edward Jones. Some of the precursors to Gonzo can be found in the writings of Kurt Vonnegut.

See also

• Gonzo
• Social Beat
• Transmetropolitan