A hybrid combination of three dot journalism and the Gonzo style of reporting gives a columnist a great deal of latitude for making editorial and photo decisions.
For example in the San Francisco area, a new bridge is being built to replace one that is 75 years old. Readers in Los Angles, New York City, and Fremantle could care less about a new bridge between Treasure Island and Oakland. When the bridge encounters delays because of faulty bolts and the entire project is put in jeopardy, the news value of an item about that bit of local news gains some additional news value. If the integrity of the entire project comes into question because of some greedy short cuts, then a mention of a topic that has not been used in the mainstream media becomes more pragmatic.
When the future of the project is called into question, a renegade pundit can muse about the curiosity factor of the possibility that the bigger a crime is, the less likely it is that some poltroon (we learned that word while reading some H. L. Mencken) will serve time in prison. Perhaps we could do an entire column about the possibility that there is some kind of inverse proportion linking the amount of money involved in the commission of a crime and the length of a prison sentence. Didn't Jean Valjean learn that lesson first hand many moons ago?
One other advantage to inventing a writing style that combines three dot journalism with the Gonzo school of first hand observations is that it makes it much more difficult for trolls to disrupt the flow with a bumper sticker slogan. Isn't it more compassionate to toss them an occasional malapropism and watch them go into an ecstatic trance when they have the opportunity to point out the "mistake"?
What's not to love about an esoteric and arcane tidbit of information that will cause a WTF meltdown reaction? Could the Bay Bridge Bolts be compared to the Warren Commission's exhibit no. 399?
Commentators from both the Republican and Democratic Parties seem to be in agreement about the fact that the United States Supreme Court decision on gay marriages could go either way (15 yard penalty for inappropriate clichà �?) but a rogue columnist can have the opinion that a decision that could be compared to a walk off grand slam homerun for conservatives is a gimme call for cynics.
Journalists partial to either the Democratic or the Republican Parties seem to be in agreement about the reliability factor for the unhackable electronic voting machines. Hunter S. Thompson (the godfather of Gozno) might, if he were still alive and ranting, advise his fans to embrace a more cynical assessment.
General Douglas MacArthur said: "It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it."
The disk jockey will augment the music with a playing of Edward R. Murrow's "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast. The tunes for playing us out ("We'll do it live!") will be the Andrew sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," Edith Piaf's "Mon Legionnaire," and Marlene Deitrich's "Lilly Marlene." We have to go prepare for celebrating National Tap Dancing Day and National Towel Day (in honor of writer Douglas Adams) simultaneously on Saturday. Have a "ya mean people get paid to do this?" type week.
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