They Will Rise Again From the Tundra

Simon Read. War of Words: A Tale of Newsprint and Murder. Union Square Press, 2009. 320 pages. ISBN-10: 1402756127

“Journalism [is]… a low trade and a habit worse than heroin, a strange seedy world of misfits and drunkards and failures.” — Hunter S. Thompson

Simon Read begins War of Words: A Tale of Newsprint and Murder with two quotations, the first an excerpt from the Daily Dramatic Chronicle (later the San Francisco Chronicle) comparing the marksmanship of American journalists to that of their French counterparts and the second a fitting quote from Thompson’s indelible The Great Shark Hunt, a landmark collection of essays and articles that chronicle Thompson’s slog through the mid- to late-1960s and 1970s.

It is hard to imagine anything (journalistically, at least) that rivals the depravity Thompson encountered and, in some cases, perpetuated during the Hippie movement, the 1972 presidential campaign, and Richard Nixon with … Read more

Perhaps I’ll have more later on the potential implications of the Obama Administration once I can wrap my head around all the potential boons and pitfalls suffice it to say that a recent issue of the Chicago Reader said it best:  don’t screw this up.

In the meantime, Newsweek has released a series of articles entitled Secrets of the 2008 Campaign, which is a kitschy title.  Nonetheless, the behind-the-scenes reportage is some of the best campaign journalism since Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72.

Newsweek is a largely mediocre source of news, but every now and then they put out a smashmouth piece of honest journalism.  This is one of those.… Read more