As if conservative columnist Robert Novak being absolutely shocked at how Op-Ed pages work wasn’t enough, now we have liberal investigative journalist Sy Hersh saying it’s OK if he lies to audiences who pay him big bucks to speak.
Is there something in the water (or bourbon) that these guys are drinking? We dealt with Novak below and now — JUST when we THOUGHT we caught our breath — we see this:
Since the Abu Ghraib story broke eleven months ago, The New Yorker’s national-security correspondent, Seymour Hersh, has followed it up with a series of spectacular scoops. Videotape of young boys being raped at Abu Ghraib. Evidence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may be a “composite figure� and a propaganda creation of either Iraq’s Baathist insurgency or the U.S. government. The active involvement of Karl Rove and the president in “prisoner-interrogation issues.� The mysterious disappearance of $1 billion, in cash, in Iraq. A threat by the administration to a TV network to cut off access to briefings in retaliation for asking Laura Bush “a very tough question about abortion.� The Iraqi insurgency’s access to short-range FROG missiles that “can do grievous damage to American troops.� The murder, by an American platoon, of 36 Iraqi guards.
Here’s the “nut graph” in this long New York Magazine piece:
Not one of these exclusives appeared in the pages of The New Yorker, however. Instead, Hersh delivered them in speeches on college campuses and in front of organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and on public-radio shows like “Democracy Now!� In most cases, Hersh attaches a caveat—such as “I’m just talking now, I’m not writing�—before unloading one of his blockbusters, which can send bloggers and reporters scurrying for confirmation.
Every writer understands that there is a gap between the print persona and the actual self, but Hersh subscribes to a bright-line test, a wider chasm than is usually acknowledged, particularly in today’s multimedia age.There are two Hershes, really. Seymour M. is the byline. He navigates readers through the byzantine world of America’s overlapping national-security bureaucracies, and his stories form what Hersh has taken to calling an “alternative history� of the Bush administration since September 11, 2001.
Then there’s Sy. He’s the public speaker, the pundit. On the podium, Sy is willing to tell a story that’s not quite right, in order to convey a Larger Truth. “Sometimes I change events, dates, and places in a certain way to protect people,� Hersh told me. “I can’t fudge what I write. But I can certainly fudge what I say.�
Uh, oh, here go more potential Blogads advertisers when we say this:
Then WHY should anyone believe Sy Hersh anymore? If he wanted to protect his sources he could simply say he has to leave some details out. Mr. Hersh: TMV is not one iota as famous as you are, nor has he won any awards (and probably won’t) but he knows journalistic ethics. If you had said this in a journalism class the professor would have jumped down your throat.
And what about those who invited you to speak or hired you? Did they think for one second that you were going to fudge the truth — or that you thought you had a right to do so? I suspect they believed every word you said. Who can do that in the future?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.