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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume 4
Fall 2005
Polemical Hacks, Bastardized Gonzo,
and the Death Of Democracy - Page 9
By Eric Kaufmann
Thus the problem with public discourse today is with the core structure of the media, which serves as a barrier to dialogue, simultaneously failing to properly inform the citizenry, and barring access to anyone else who may try. Only a strong commitment to institutional reforms within press-rooms and journalism programs can provide the forum for the informed civic discourse called for by Durrant. And perhaps what is needed to start the process is another scathing critique by a maverick journalist whose only goal is to live the story. For Gonzo journalism is not the problem, but the ultimate solution, an idea that each citizen should engage directly in political life, not merely read about it. And in today's sordid state of affairs, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson may be the only one capable of orchestrating such a spectacular reversal of journalism's decline. And despite his untimely death, perhaps, as Thompson once eulogized an old friend, "it might even come to pass that he will suddenly appear . . . on some moonless night when the peacocks are screeching with lust. . . . Maybe so, and that is one ghost who will always be welcome . . . even with a head full of acid" (The Great Shark Hunt 515).
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