Hunter S. Thompson was an iconoclast who embraced a form of journalism best described as investigative desecration. That is not to say that he was not an incisive journalist, nor a talented writer, for he was both. As journalist and writer his objective was always the same: infiltration by any means and indoctrination at any cost to secure direct, and often, eremitic exposure to his chosen subject.

The tragedy of Mr. Thompson's vast contributions to both fields however, is that at the height of his prowess he was embraced primarily by the underground, venerated as a cult writer; perhaps because of his penchant for subcultures existing on the periphery of society; perhaps because of his affinity for illicit drugs; neither matters, for at the time of his suicide and death, the art and craft of his journalistic style had been so polluted by his mainstream successors that reportage was wholly eclipsed by the "journalist's" experience.

It would be hard to argue that Mr. Thompson was not the embodiment of the "embedded reporter". Certainly, he was not the first: his predecessors, from adventurer Sir Richard Francis Burton to historian, William L. Shirer, had well reported through personal experience. But, no writer since Burton had so deeply qualified within that formidable pantheon as verging on the brink of defection.

That Burton was rescued because of own insatiable desire for recognition and glory is a testament to the male ego in the Victorian Age. That Thompson survived is tribute to a palatable cynicism hell bent on exposing the fraudulent perception of societal injustice within given subcultures. Thompson may well have "gone native", as experimental sociologists occasionally do, had it not been for his continued disappointment in the fundamental misperceptions and hypocrisy of each rebellion he experienced.

Thompson's successors have inherited and embraced the least important aspect of gonzo journalism: the "me" of the story. In doing so, they have centered coverage on themselves, catering a personal narrative in which story has become subplot. From Peter Arnett to Anderson Cooper "embedded" has been redefined as biography, simulcast in real time.

Learn more about this author, H. Aslan Aslani-Far.
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