Boys on the Bus, by Timothy Crouse,

Boys on the Bus," by Timothy Crouse, is a story of Crouse's 1972 political campaign trip with Hunter Thompson. Both were writers for Rolling Stone, and Thompson gave Crouse the assignment of observing the press. He accomplishes this by riding in the bus and planes, covering the Nixon-McGovern presidential race and observing the journalists. His book is insightful and was a new idea at the time of writing. The idea of observing the press and writing about it was novel and it was received well by readers.

Crouse believes that after being on the road together for a period of time, the press took on a "pack journalism" character. He describes the journalists, as an entirety, believing the same rumors and rejecting others that they found undependable. Crouse attempts to discuss other stories that he has heard, sometimes not complimentary to "their" candidate. He finds that, "All the ones I asked said that they had not heard the rumors. I believed them, but thought another factor might be operating. I thought they didn't want to hear the rumors (...) because they wanted to be on the winners bus" (54-55). This "pack journalism' isn't acknowledged by the press. They are not in favor of it and don't view themselves this way. They believe they are reporting the facts and in fact, would be discontented with themselves if they believed they were not totally objective in their reporting.

Crouse attributes this "sameness" to the fact that these journalists see the same thing every day in the confines of their bus or plane and share the same stories over and over.

Crouse doesn't glamorize this type of political press coverage. He recognizes that traveling around the country in buses and planes with each other for months, drinking excessively and not sleeping normally is hardly glamorous, but acknowledges that this kind of life is ideal for some journalists.

He recognized that the political journalists he was traveling with had influence over the politics they were covering. Although television was certainly part of the political campaigns in 1972, the articles printed in newspapers and magazines had a great effect on the public. If the journalists talked about what they perceived as the candidates strong points, they were influencing the public's view of this candidate. Crouse believed the journalists needed to be objective, instead of summarily believing everything they were told. He was complimentary about some of the journalists, though, including Bob Greene and Ron Rosenbaum. He saved his best opinions of journalists for his fellow writer from Rolling Stone, Hunter Thompson. Crouse states, 'the nonobjective journalist who created the greatest sensation, and the only one who covered the campaign full-time from January through November, was Hunter S. Thompson of Rolling Stone" (311-312).