a 21 year-old Hunter S. Thompson's cover letter

[redxblack]

 
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Hunter+Thompson+brutally+honest+Canadian+request/3606508/story.html

By the time you get this letter, I'll have gotten hold of some of the recent issues of The Sun. Unless it looks totally worthless, I'll let my offer stand. And don't think that my arrogance is unintentional: it's just that I'd rather offend you now than after I started working for you.

[ducpainter]

He could spell.

[fastwin]

Saw HST at a lecture in the mid 70's at the LBJ School for Public Affairs on the UT Austin campus. He was late, pretty high, towel drapped over his head and neck and yes, he was funny as shit. I'll be damned what the actual topic was about. If there was an actual topic! There was some really funny Q&A at the end! Great, crazy character for sure. Damn sure broke that mold.

[zarn02]

Very nice!

[Triple J]

 

Now that's a cover letter! 

[Howie]

I miss Hunter S Thompson.  We need him now more than ever.

[superjohn]

He could spell.

A great writer!! What I find interesting about that cover letter is that his opinion of the industry at the time can very well be applied to the consumer today. Did one begat the other?

I miss Hunter S Thompson.  We need him now more than ever.

I agree. Even when being sensationalist, he did it with a degree of competence and credibility that is lacking in the media world today.

[zarn02]

<snip>What I find interesting about that cover letter is that his opinion of the industry at the time can very well be applied to the consumer today. Did one begat the other?</snip>

I don't think we can limit our blame to the media. Without becoming political about the whole thing, there are other forces at work. I certainly think that as a society we're dumber and more apathetic than we've ever been.

[zarn02]

(Errr... not to threadjack. )

[superjohn]

I don't think we can limit our blame to the media. Without becoming political about the whole thing, there are other forces at work. I certainly think that as a society we're dumber and more apathetic than we've ever been.

Oh, I am not blaming the media at all. They're just being reinforced for their bad behavior by a consumer culture short on intellectualism and long on dick and fart jokes as entertainment.

[zarn02]

Oh, I am not blaming the media at all. They're just being reinforced for their bad behavior by a consumer culture short on intellectualism and long on dick and fart jokes as entertainment.

Eh, it's probably at least partially circular. The media gives us what we love, which means we love it more, which makes them give us more of it...

[badgalbetty]

when I read the news I want the truth. I dont want some sugar coated rubbish that idolizes whatever. The news is not a sale at Nordstroms the news is a train wreck in Idaho killing 7. The news is not what you can buy from Freds nursery this weekend but The cancer cure they found at Oregon Heath Sciences University. The news is not who won survivor or American Idol, but who won a a Marathon, Who won a teaching excellence recognition, or a Cop who did his job helping a rape victim in your town. The news is far from news these days, so when I need to read some news I generally go to BBC. There at least I get something resembling the truth about a situation. I feel that someone who has the strength and courage to write and publish something that is true and may not be popular because it may be a difficult topic is much more worthy of my attention than the drivel shovelled down our throats by contemporary media. HST will always be a man of words and will always have a special place in heart.
BGB.

[zarn02]

So I wrote a bunch of stuff that was pertinent to the topic, and then realized that my post was diving headlong into forbidden waters.

So I'll limit myself to the following: The majority has been well-trained to not give two shits about anything that's actually important. The media reflects this fact, reinforces it, and profits from it.

[zarn02]

I'll give a '+1' to Howie's post, though I deeply dislike the phrase "now more than ever."

In these trying times (to use another marketing and media cliché...) we need some writers and journalists with chutzpah, who don't give a damn about PR or job security.

[superjohn]

Amen to BGB. The BBC is what I turn to when I want good news.

I'll take it one step further and say the news is also no simply an endless string of stories about child abuse and traffic accidents just because that happens to get the highest "hit counts" on the website.

I think what troubles me more than anything is that with the advent of blogs and YouTube, we have it within our societal capability to produce an HST without the need for some editor to recognize the brilliance, but we don't. We get cats playing the piano, hamsters spinning in a wheel, and teenagers commenting on their life stories "like okay."

Maybe it's also just an extension of my own self deprecation since I complain about no one stepping up while cowing back and not stepping up.