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A review by socraticgadfly
Reporter: A Memoir by Seymour M. Hersh
5.0
A very good book, primarily about how Sy did his work, then about some of the specific projects, such as My Lai, Watergate, the CIA domestic spying and on to Abu Ghraib.
As part of this, Hersh reveals how he landed at the NYT, why he moved on, how he landed for his second and main stint at the New Yorker, why he left (he thought Remnick writing a bio of Obama was an ethical bright line), and bits of how he landed at the London Review of Books and then moved past it to Die Welt. With LRB, it wasn't fact-checking as the deal-breaker; he says he thought he was being asked for facts that were trivial or irrelevant to the story he had produced.
That said, he more than once appreciates the work of Remnick in particular and editors in general. He admits they've helped him, on suggesting specific additional information, getting people to go on the record rather than just background, and on tightening things up. (He indirectly indicates that his writing tends to wander at times and so he needs that type of editing help as well.) At the New Yorker and LRB, he also says he appreciates the degree of fact-checking work.
It's a shame that his Cheney bio was derailed. Hersh, presumably as a good protector of sources, doesn't shed more light on that.
But, we get this instead.
For long-time readers of him, there's not a lot of new spill the beans stuff. (I can see voting it 4 stars instead of 5 because of this, but 3? No.)
He does mention that Clean Gene McCarthy was a CIA bagman for JFK; he may have mentioned that in Dark Side of Camelot, but it's been a long time since I read that. He also mentions three documented instances of Dick Nixon hitting Pat, the first when he lost the Cal governor's race, the second in the White House and the third just after arriving in San Clemente after his resignation. Hersh says he heard about the third in real time, then, working sources, got info about the other two.
Obviously, he didn't report it. He mentioned it to the public for the first time at a 1998 Harvard event, and was rightly called out by many women in attendance as domestic violence is a crime.
One thing that is missing, other than the broadest of overviews about the Trump Administration, is Ed Butowsky's attempt to entangle Hersh in the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. Hersh didn't bite on Rich being murdered as a coverup, but he did appear to believe then that Rich stole the emails. (Confession: As I blogged at the time https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2017/08/sy-hersh-seth-rich-wikileaks-and.html, so did I, but I backed away from that within six months. I don't know where Sy is, and if he's not commented further on advice of counsel given all the lawsuits involved here.)
As part of this, Hersh reveals how he landed at the NYT, why he moved on, how he landed for his second and main stint at the New Yorker, why he left (he thought Remnick writing a bio of Obama was an ethical bright line), and bits of how he landed at the London Review of Books and then moved past it to Die Welt. With LRB, it wasn't fact-checking as the deal-breaker; he says he thought he was being asked for facts that were trivial or irrelevant to the story he had produced.
That said, he more than once appreciates the work of Remnick in particular and editors in general. He admits they've helped him, on suggesting specific additional information, getting people to go on the record rather than just background, and on tightening things up. (He indirectly indicates that his writing tends to wander at times and so he needs that type of editing help as well.) At the New Yorker and LRB, he also says he appreciates the degree of fact-checking work.
It's a shame that his Cheney bio was derailed. Hersh, presumably as a good protector of sources, doesn't shed more light on that.
But, we get this instead.
For long-time readers of him, there's not a lot of new spill the beans stuff. (I can see voting it 4 stars instead of 5 because of this, but 3? No.)
He does mention that Clean Gene McCarthy was a CIA bagman for JFK; he may have mentioned that in Dark Side of Camelot, but it's been a long time since I read that. He also mentions three documented instances of Dick Nixon hitting Pat, the first when he lost the Cal governor's race, the second in the White House and the third just after arriving in San Clemente after his resignation. Hersh says he heard about the third in real time, then, working sources, got info about the other two.
Obviously, he didn't report it. He mentioned it to the public for the first time at a 1998 Harvard event, and was rightly called out by many women in attendance as domestic violence is a crime.
One thing that is missing, other than the broadest of overviews about the Trump Administration, is Ed Butowsky's attempt to entangle Hersh in the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. Hersh didn't bite on Rich being murdered as a coverup, but he did appear to believe then that Rich stole the emails. (Confession: As I blogged at the time https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2017/08/sy-hersh-seth-rich-wikileaks-and.html, so did I, but I backed away from that within six months. I don't know where Sy is, and if he's not commented further on advice of counsel given all the lawsuits involved here.)