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The Age of Gonzo

Thought to be the birth of "gonzo" journalism, "Fear and Loathing" was the drug-fueled odyssey of Thompson and his "300-lb. Samoan attorney" (he was actually a 250-lb. Chicago legal-aid lawyer) covering a district attorneys convention in Las Vegas. By the end of page one, you're pretty well convinced that if 1972 was manic because it was emerging from the craziness of the 1960s but still entrenched in an escalating war in Vietnam, then being there having ingested a grocery cart of narcotics was no less terrifying.

The Truth, nevertheless, was that both serious narcotics and corrupt governments were not for me. It's just that Thompson's embedded reporting from the front lines hit a nerve with me -- on both fronts.

"Gonzo journalism" has many definitions. In CNN's obituary to Thompson, gonzo journalism is the act of embedding oneself in a sort of novelistic way into the subject matter.

As I ponder the crazy life of Hunter, I recognize that we live in the early post-gonzo years of journalism and public relations. From insider business blogs to embedded reporters in Iraq, CBS "news" stories on Bush's National Guard service to Reggie Fowler's personal history, a nouveau gonzo journalism is making waves again. (For those out state, Reggie Fowler is the heir apparent of the Minnesota Vikings who, having to publicly contradict his official public relations cheat sheet, apparently did not play for the Cincinnati Bengals, did not play in the kids World Series, and was not the owner of the 11th largest African-American owned business. And because he's now come clean personally in front of the camera, we all like him again.)

To equate "gonzo" with "being under the influence of narcotics" is to cheat yourself from an intriguing phenomenon occurring in the world of professional message-crafting. Today, professional journalism and public relations people are struggling as they wrestle with their own objective filtering of instant news and opinion from the blogs and online message boards. The bloggers are to mainstream news as Hunter S. Thompson was to his editors at Rolling Stone: a stream of consciousness that often contains truth but the paths getting there can often be ridiculous. And too often the ridiculousness of it all prevents mainstream news from finding the truth within the stream of information.

But on the other hand, professional PR people struggle with the oft-thought ridiculousness of having business leaders show their real side in personal blogs. Why? Because what if the leader's thoughts are "off message," they'll warn. What if they exhibit fearfulness or weakness or vulnerability? What if, gasp, they show they're human?

But as readers and consumers we ask, "Is this person human?" What is the gestalt of this leader and their business? The Reggie Fowler incident last week proves to me that putting the man in front of the mic far surpasses the effectiveness of planting the sifted story to the mainstream news. When half-truths are told, we now have the means to debunk them -- quickly.

Inundated with messaging, we as consumers increasingly desire transparency in the brands we support. Or put another way we're looking for truer meaning. We want to know for ourselves the truth behind the message. Buying a digital camera -- or a high-end piece of industrial equipment for that matter -- no longer means turning the pages of Newsweek, viewing an ad for a Canon, and heading to your local Best Buy to purchase one. No. It entails reading the ad, going online, reading the message boards and blogs from other people who own that Canon, and making an informed decision about the investment.

Don't think Canon might think of this as a little gonzo? Think again.

In Hunter S. Thompson?s own words in The Great Shark Hunt: "the writer must be a participant in the scene...like a film director who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work, and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least the main character".

Strip out the narcotics (but keeping a good cabernet in the mix), and the contemporary public relations market is emerging into its gonzo era, where readers and storytellers are immersed into the same environment of the subject. There, in the thick of things, is often the truth. And who better to be the pundit than the subject matter himself.

Ask Reggie Fowler. He knows about immersion.

Ask Dan Rather. He wishes he had.

Posted by Andrew at February 28, 2005