Coverage review – Seymour Hersh, legend journalist, exposing atrocities, gets moment in spotlight | Documentaries

RThe role of famous investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has never been played in a film by Robert Redford or Dustin Hoffman, as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post have. But as this documentary says, it may be more important than either. Hersh has a longer record of breaking major stories, from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam to torture by US military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq – the latter a historical first confirmed by the disgusting photographs Hersh revealed. Hirsch is asked if Abu Ghraib would be the story it was without those pictures, and he replies: “No pictures, no story.” Well, maybe. But his other shovels did not contain images of this kind. One incidental thing that Abu Ghraib shows is how widespread digital photography was at the turn of the century; How easy it was to take photos and share them. Now, in the new age of artificial intelligence, images are no longer the evidence of truth.

The title of this movie speaks for itself. Hirsch is always looking for things that powerful people would rather remain hidden—although the irony of the film is that Hirsch must protect his sources, cover them up as it were. Secrecy plays a role in his career, and when it appears as if filmmakers Laura Poitras and Mark Oppenhaus have sensitive names in the notes he handed them, Hirsch becomes agitated and seems ready to back away from the documentary altogether.

From My Lai onwards, the MO of the authorities and the MO of Hersh are very clear. The government will deny and obstruct, until it confronts something blatant and undeniable, when it claims it is a one-off and a bad apple. But Hirsch tends to see that these are not individual traumatic events; It’s the only time I became aware of it. With the typical “shoeskin” reporter’s instincts, Hirsch goes to see the people of interest, talks to them, spends time reading a story, and doesn’t take no for an answer.

Hirsch emerges as a strong, combative and tense character from this film. We’re just getting a taste of the volcanic temper he can unleash when he needs to lash out at some jaded editor for giving him the resources he needs. This is how it should be. Hersh was very vocal about his displeasure at missing out on the Watergate story (although he was involved in some of the events later), and almost being duped by fake letters between John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. He also harshly mocks those centrists in the mainstream press who print the press release and become complicit in the abuses—although his attempts to investigate the giant Gulf+Western were hampered by the realization that his New York Times employers were not themselves above criticism. Hirsch is a true freelancer and is happy to write on Substack: he’s independent and non-committal.