Gonzo Journalism is a journalistic style, most famously used by Hunter S. Thompson. It was named "gonzo" by Bill Cardoso.
Gonzo Journalism is, in essence, an extension of the "New Journalism" championed by Lester Bangs, Tom Wolfe and George Plimpton. The best work in the genre is characterised by adding novelistic twist to reportage, with usual standards of accuracy subjugated to catching the mood of a place or event.
Central to Gonzo Journalism is the notion that journalism can be more truthful without strict observance of traditional rules of factual reportage.
"I don't get any satisfaction out of the old traditional journalist's view - 'I just covered the story. I just gave it a balanced view,'" Thompson said in an interview for Atlantic Unbound. "Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. You can't be objective about Nixon. How can you be objective about Clinton?"
In Thompson's work there is frequently a distorted viewpoint brought on by the author's consumption of drugs and alcohol (usually recorded in the article for posterity). As such, much of his output (including the seminal Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) must be regarded as fiction.
Other writers whose work may be categorised as "gonzo" include P. J. O'Rourke and Tim Jones.
