Frank Rich: Gonzo Gone, Rather Going, Watergate Still Here

The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: Gonzo Gone, Rather Going, Watergate Still Here: "Gonzo Gone, Rather Going, Watergate Still Here

Published: March 6, 2005

TWO weeks ago Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide. Next week Dan Rather commits ritual suicide, leaving the anchor chair at CBS prematurely as penance for his toxic National Guard story. The two journalists shared little but an abiding distaste - make that hatred in Thompson's case - for the Great Satan of 20th-century American politics, Richard Nixon. The best work of both was long behind them. Yet memories of that best work - not to mention the coincidental timing of their departures - only accentuate the vacuum in that cultural category we stubbornly insist on calling News"