Much controversy has been generated by the New Journalism of Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, and Hunter Thompson, in part because traditional journalists believe that the "facts" tend to be tainted by the style with which they are presented, and in part because the New Journalists created a genre of reportage which seems more engaging and interesting than the more objective, drier traditional approach. Part of the criticism levied at the New Journalists was rooted in the fear of returning to the "muckraking" reportage rampant prior to World War II. Unlike muckraking, however, the New Journalists insist on the accuracy of fact and detail — Thompson and Wolfe are both exceptional scholars and researchers — and it is this same insistence on accuracy that led them to present facts within a context rather than as pure information.

It is both interesting and predictable that Thompson and Breslin...