Hunter Thompson speaks
Mr. Gonzo Journalism, the model for Duke in Doonesbury, the man who influenced a LOT of people, just did an interview. He’s quite sane – and disturbed by what’s going on. Timid media afraid to report the actual news. A country about to fall into a “pit” of fear and police state actions. “Thieves who wanted a few more zeros in their accounts” as CEO’s looting the public. A country that picks fights across the world then wonders why they get into fights. A country embarking on a lunatic war. A cowed and fearful populace.
He has a new book coming out in December. The title? “Kingdom of Fear.” That’s basically how he views the state of the U.S. right now.
When our interview began, Thompson was watching a classic bit of Americana, circa 2002: a live CNN report about the police closing Alligator Alley, a stretch of highway in Florida, as they investigated a vague but worrisome report from a waitress in Georgia about a possible terrorist bomb threat.
Thompson said he was stunned by the attention stemming “from a conversation a woman overhears in some diner in Calhoun, Ga.” She then phones her fear in to “some tip line.”
Thompson didn’t even try to conceal his amazement that the police would go so far as to “shut down the interstate highway” and BLOW UP PEOPLE’S LUGGAGE!”
The CNN story was an example of what he called the media taking its devotion to sensationalism “past all limits of absurdity.
The interview is on audio, with the interviewer too obviously awed by Hunter. However, Hunter is re-emerging, and that can only be good. His caustic presence is needed.