Comment - Seymour Hersh - Reporter- A Memoir

 Seymour Hersh's memoir should be compulsive reading for anyone considering going into journalism. The number of essential stories he has broken throughout his career is staggering. 

As a young man, he began working at his father's laundry, and when his father passed, he grabbed the reigns and kept the business above water - all the while studying at school. He attributes this time to his persistence and doggedness as a future news reporter. 

Hersh started at the bottom, writing dispatches and learning his craft on various beats or anything his superiors would assign him to. This is where he learned the basics and never jumped to conclusions on a story until all the facts were available.  

Hersh's first and most known breaking story was the My Lai massacre during the Veitnam War. I remember this story as a 10-year-old living in Colorado. We would later talk about the incident in high school with our few progressive teachers. After rereading the specifics, the brutality and carnage of what these young American soldiers afflicted on these innocents continue to feel disturbing to this day. This reporting certainly contributed to the antiwar effort and the final end of this war. 

It takes a particular type of personality to run down sources and keep those sources over many years. The memoir only names sources that have passed and refuse to name them in the present time. I believe the 80's term "networking" describes Hersh's methods. The bottom line is trust and nurturing one's sources to expose their experiences and knowledge that our governments prefer to remain secret. 

The crimes of Nixon and Kissinger are revealed through Hersh's reporting. Bob Woodward, then at The Washington Post, and Hersh, working for the Times, collaborated on the Watergate scandal. They continue to be good friends to this day.

The illegal bombing of Cambodia and Laos was also a story that Hersh broke, making him enemy number one for Nixon and particularly Kissinger. The millions of unnecessary deaths of these civilians are a war crime. Those responsible for the atrocity at the top never paid for these crimes. This is a common occurrence when it comes to American Wars.

I'm not a journalist; however, this text showed me the importance of a good editor. Hersh's relationship with editor A.M. Rosenthal of the Times was constantly confrontational, testy, and in instances, absolutely hilarious. Two hard-headed newsmen, passionate about their trade bucking heads, were insightful and entertaining. Rosenthal believed in Hersh and went out on a limb countless time for a "Hersh story." Over a story that both men disagreed about, Hersh stormed back into his office and threw his typewriter through the window. Hersh returned the next day to find the window replaced and a clean desk. This story ended up being published. 

The news of Abu Ghraib hit the world hard. Bush and Cheney's insistence on torture was taken seriously. Apart from Hersh's reporting, the images speak for themselves. When attempting to track down one of the female guards at the facility, he spoke with her mother, who said she is totally withdrawn, tattooing her entire body in black. (The young woman was trying to disappear).  

Hersh's writing in his memoir is accessible and riveting. 

Mainstream media has dropped its mask over the last week. Tracking down the leaker of secret documents the young man uploaded online. Doing the FBI's job, a "journalist" tracked him down and turned him in, the authorities arresting him in a display of force similar to the IDF in the Gaza Strip. 

We are currently experiencing a massive censorship campaign by the government. A journalist "punching up" to power is their job. Hersh continues to reveal government crimes while these young Mainstream journalists are merely collaborators with the corrupt establishment. 

Any writer/journalist should read Hersh's memoir...and learn what a reporter is about.