The Boys on the Bus [Paperback]

Timothy Crouse (Author), Hunter S. Thompson (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: August 12, 2003

Cheap booze. Flying fleshpots. Lack of sleep. Endless spin. Lying pols.

Just a few of the snares lying in wait for the reporters who covered the 1972 presidential election. Traveling with the press pack from the June primaries to the big night in November, Rolling Stone reporter Timothy Crouse hopscotched the country with both the Nixon and McGovern campaigns and witnessed the birth of modern campaign journalism. The Boys on the Bus is the raucous story of how American news got to be what it is today. With its verve, wit, and psychological acumen, it is a classic of American reporting.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Political spin-doctoring has become something of an art form in the last few decades. It was less artful in the early years of the information age, and Crouse's entertaining look at the attempts of both the Nixon and McGovern '72 campaign staffs to control the media seems almost comical, so poor were they at the image-and-sound bite manipulation that now defines our politics. Crouse is a serious-minded journalist, however, and his firsthand report on how political news is made and shaped remains important reading. Check out Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 for a more madcap view of the same matters. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“All the secrets . . . the definitive story.”
—The Washington Post

“Provokes, perplexes, illuminates and amuses.”
—Newsweek


“An extremely insightful and provocative book.”
—New York

“Crouse takes a big bite out of the hand that
feeds news to America——a mean, funny,
absolutely honest book!”
—Hunter S. Thompson

“Marvelously entertaining . . . There is no better way to
find out just how the news . . . reaches us.”
—The Boston Globe

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; Reprint edition (August 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812968204
• ISBN-13: 978-0812968200
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 1 x 5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Set the Standard July 31, 2001

By D

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This book is an account of the 1972 presidential campaign. Crouse's account set the standard for books about presidential campaigns; a standard that has not yet been beaten.

The 1972 campaign involved the first real attempt by campaigns to spin-doctor the press and American people during a campaign. Previously, we left that to the already elected.

The 1972 campaign also marked the first real attempt by networks to create stars out of reporters. This network tactic has continued unabated until the present. In fact, recent studies have reported that reporters now receive much more air time than the actual candidates.

Crouse's book is essential reading for political junkies as well as history buffs. The 1972 election was truly a watershed event which continued through the Watergate era.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The scoop on those who provide the scoop May 11, 2000

By Brian D. Rubendall HALL OF FAME

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Crouse's groundbreaking book on the 1972 Presidential campaign was reveolutionary in the way it covered the reporters who covered the election. This was the first step in to turning these reporters into "stars" in their own right. Who can doubt today that the visibility one gets from being a reporter on a successful Presidential campaign can transform you into a highly paid and visible "talking head." Crouse's book is well written, informative and quite amusing, which is appropriate since he spent the campaign hanging out with the immortal Hunter S. Thompson. A must for political junkies.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic reveals the press as they were May 29, 2005

By Bart Motes VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This brilliantly conceived and executed book pulled back the curtain on the culture of covering presidential campaigns much like Theodore White's The Making of the President before it. Smooth and seemless prose is marred only slightly by the contrived tactic of attempting one line physical descriptions of principals "a bull of a man," "a lovely and smart woman," etc.

Structurally, the book proceeds from the failed Muskie campaign and an introduction of some of the icons of the industry at the time (two, David Broder and Robert Novak, must be packed in ice every night and only thawed out to give television appearences, such is their longevity) to Nixon's campaign, the not yet completed Watergate investigation of Woodward and Bernstein, and then finally the doomed McGovern campaign once again. The technique is man on the scene, interspersed with set interviews in which the interviewer is an actor.

Crouse's classic is entertaining and informative. It is entertaining because of the colorful portraits of a gang of mostly fun loving guys and a few jerks, and informative because it shows that the true bias of the press is an establishment bias, much more complicated than a simple left-right dichotomy, it's the institutional pressures of the job that leads to the press's often distorted views. Yes, the reporters trend liberal, but the editors and publishers trend conservative, and in recent years the line has blurred between the interests of the publishers and their employees. These guys are not scrappily taking in about the same salary as a bus driver or construction worker anymore, their vibe is much more movie star. Yet now as then, the real distortion is the pack mentality and fear of being the outlier in coverage, suspect by editors with no other framework for evaluation.... We've become much more aware of this in recent years, with discussion of the press's "meta-narrative," an overarching theme like "Bush dumb" or "Kerry flip-flops," or yet more infamously, the fiasco of weapons of mass destruction, but it is still instructive to see a character study into the precise details of how it happens.

Hunter Thompson's book on the same campaign "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" provides a good contrast to this book, as does Norman Mailer's "Miami and the Siege of Chicago : An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968." Both are worth examining if you are interested in politics and the period. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, dated look at Political Reporting November 1, 2008

By K.A.Goldberg

Format:Paperback

Timothy Crouse was one of the first to report on the pack journalism covering a Presidential campaign. Readers ride along on crowded busses during the 1972 campaign, witnessing press personalities like Hunter S. Thompson, R. W. Apple, Ted White, etc., and noting their strengths and inefficiencies. The book is partly about politics, but more about the life of pack jounralism. The book begins in the snows of New Hampshire as early-favorite Ed Muskie fades and George McGovern surges to the Democratic nomination. Later, comes the non-campaign when President Nixon sidestepped the press (and any discussion of issues) thus letting the media's scrutiny fall heavily on the more accessible but flawed-and-doomed McGovern effort. We see that while many reporters indeed lean to the left, their editors and managers usually lean rightward, and charges of liberal bias are usually doubtful. Crouse only partly comprehends how campaigns manipulate the media - something done with far more sophistication by today's politicos. Still, this is a gripping, readable book, one that takes an interesting look at press coverage and Presidential politics.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A detailed behind-the-scenes look at political journalism July 21, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This book doesn't necessarily analyze news coverage of political campaigns, but it describes what it is like to be there and be a part of it. Actually, the book describes what it *was* like, because it is evident that many things in campaign reporting and the White House press corps have changed. Though it's not very dramatic, anyone who wants a close look at the gritty, sleepless, amusing and often hilarious world of covering a political campaign needs to read this.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Two made a huge crowd in Nixon's campaign June 2, 2007

By L.. Oost

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Timothy Crouse covered the 1972 presidential campaign. It was a lousy campaign. George McGovern stoodn't any chance against president Richard Nixon. Nixon refused being engaged in any campaigning at all. He seemed to deny that in an election even the president of the United States submits himself to the jury of the America voters. It must have been a frustrating campaign for McGovern who honestly tried to provoke discussions between the candidates. Timothy Crouse gives us an revealing insight in the way the press covered this presidential campaign. The Nixon campaign team led by White House spokesman Ron Ziegler avoided presidential press conferences and sufficed with written handouts. Nixon's team was apt to win the election because they knew the importance of the first strike. 'A charge is usually put on the front page; the defense is buried among the deodorant ads". Ziegler once announced that 700.000 people had come out to see Nixon in Atlanta. Jim Perry of the National Observer phoned the Atlanta Public Works to check it out. He found out that each city block was about 400 feet long. He estimated that 400 people a block, 5 rows deep, for 15 blocks had seen Richard Nixon. That made 60.000 people. He threw in another 15.000 people to cover the side streets and finally he wrote that "in act of charity I am willing to say that 75.000 people turned out to welcome Richard Nixon to Atlanta'. So 75.000 istead of 700.000!! Crouse invented the term pack journalism. It is a kind a groupthink, common when reporters have limited access to information and consensus is emerging about what is newsworthy. The 1972 campaign is not a glorious example of independent stubborn journalism. Crouse's book is fun reading especially when you keep in mind the forthcoming 2008 presidential elections.