Cover-up: a relic of truth in the disinformation of today

Laura Poitras (dir. Citizenfour) new documentary dives into Seymour Hersh's explosive investigative journalism career of over 50 years. A fairly conventional approach in a documentary sense as we watch Hersh career unfold chronologically but there is a subtext in the film that gets one thinking about the current state of journalism.

Hersh's first big breaking story was the uncovering of the My Lai massacre by the US military during the Vietnam war. What keeps the segment interesting was following along with Hersh as he tugs on the thread opening the story more and more until a big ball of brutal ugly truth spills out.

Hersh would go on to report on the Watergate scandal contributing information on the detained CIA agents still being paid by the government while under arrest. This wouldn't be Hersh's only run in with the CIA as he cracks open stories on field spying operations on American citizens and the abuse of power to influence foreign governments to the point of possible assassinations. 

During the filming we start to see Seymour doubt the whole project of the documentary due to the crews peering eyes into information about his sources whom some are still alive. This appears to be the Achille's heel of Hersh as we discover that there has been doubt about his reporting due to his insistence of keeping his sources anonymous which some of backfired on him in the past.

Watching this film you can't help feeling a sense of nostalgia for journalism of the past and an ever growing hunger of needing another David to take on the Goliath of truth like Hersh. Which begins also the questioning of the current state of journalism. 

Hersh talks about how multiple times his editors would hold back on his stories and this is made prominent when he starts investigating corporate conglomerates like Gulf and Western. New York Times has its own financial interests and wouldn't allow someone like Hersh ruin its relationship with financial giants which finally leads to Hersh's resignment from the paper.

This comes up again when Hersh gets a couple leads on the torture and abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison by American soldiers in which Hersh learns 60 minutes also got a hold of the story but was holding back on reporting it due to government intervention. Hersh eventually tells 60 minutes you better run it because my story on this is going into print at the New Yorker in a few days which 60 minutes did end up releasing the episode to break the story first.

We can't help but to keep wondering with all this information on how much our news is being censored from us not only by our government but financial influence, outside interests, and much more as well. This distrust is just another reason thrown onto the heap of doubt and why journalism is slipping into a circus of confirmation bias or information overload to the point of nihilistic withdrawal from the news completely. 

Its not that the current world needs another Shelby Hersh what we need is an entire revaluation of the current state of the world in this time of post-truth. If we want to get back to the idea of an actual truth we must fight like hell to open our minds again no matter how big the obstacles; the biggest being our own denial. In the words of Hersh, "There was this big story that seemed impossible. There's something called the truth. There was just this massive truth out there, and I didn't see a way to get to it.".

★★★½