Progressive journalism isn't quite gonzo yet

The last year has seen the passing of some of the giants of progressive journalism in the world. George Plimpton. Pierre Salinger. Norman Mailer (wait, he's still alive...my b). Most recently, Hunter S. Thompson exited this mortal coil in a blaze of glory of his own doing (or undoing). Many a eulogy, each written in turn by members of today's news culture, bemoaned the passing of HST as the death of journalism, if not the final rattle from a corpse long since decomposing. Most of these memoriams were authored by network flunkies or AP hacks, a mish mosh of facts and quotes and conjectures, most likely written years ago, pulled from the vault early Monday morning, dusted off and pieced together with specifics like dates and times and places, and all references to "methamphetamine overdose" replaced with "gunshot wound". Hell, i prolly linked you to one of those fluff pieces earlier this week. For that, I am sorry. Call it poor judgment. Call it a moment of weakness. Call it a need to grieve without cherry-picking the finest sendoff to Dr. Gonzo to present to you, the reader.

But I am not here to rehash HST's death nor to atone for my omission of some truly insightful obits that have sprinkled through the weblogs and progressive print media this week. No, I am here to tell you that journalism is alive and well, if blanketed under and thick veil of new cycles and exclusive updates and late-breaking scoops. And so rather than try to immortalize HST in prose for you, or point you to those who have done so this week (if you really cared, you woulda found it by now anyway, methinks), I want to provide you with proof, living breathing chicken-scratching proof, that journalism in America is alive and well. IF you can pry yourself away from Dan Rather's 6-month long televised execution and the cute wittle box with the cute wittle graph in the corner of the USA Today long enough to look.

Harmon Leon of San Francisco Weekly's harrowing account of infiltrating the inner circle of the world's largest white supremacist group (over a plate of delicious nachos) is here

James Ridgeway of The Village Voice spews vitriol and chunks of bratwurst at Georgie the Globetrotter here

Dave Shulman of LA Weekly waxes poetic at a grilled cheese eat-off here

Frank Rich of that liberal hate-rag the New York Times comes down from the ivory tower long enough to moralize on Washington's moralizing of Hollywood’s morals here

Dan Kennedy of the Boston Phoenix reminds liberals that we WANT gays to be allowed in the White House here

Happy reading.