Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72 - Critique of Journalism

Critique of Journalism

As much as it is about the candidates and their various political processes, the book is equally a critical look at the mainstream media coverage of the campaigns and politics. Criticizing the various pundits and political "experts", Thompson rails against the often incestuous relationships between politicians and those who write about them. The well-known fact of Thomas Eagleton, the former United States senator who was removed after just 18 days as McGovern’s running mate, after news that electroshock therapy for depression was broken through the press as a scandal of their own making.

This position of portraying the campaigns as much as a media compilation of the stories they wished to cover instead of the presenting all the stories that occurred was widely recognized as depicting a previously unspoken truth. Frank Mankiewicz, McGovern’s campaign manager, would often say in later years that the book, despite its embellishments, therefore represented the “the least factual, most accurate account” of the election.

Timothy Crouse, who provided supplemental coverage of the campaign for Rolling Stone, wrote a memoir called The Boys on the Bus that critically analyzes the coverage of the '72 presidential campaign. In the book, often a standard text in university journalism courses, Crouse echoes Thompson's observations on the Pack Journalism mentality of the reporters covering the campaign, who were greatly dependent on the access provided by the Nixon campaign staff. Crouse describes Thompson as the one reporter who broke from the pack, however, and later printings of "The Boys on the Bus" contain an introduction by Thompson.