Ouch. I mean, damn. That had to hurt.
I propose we call this Eason Jordan Syndrome- when a titled figure shows a willingness to informally pass off as fact things he/she would never consider stating officially or on record, because, of course, they aren’t facts at all.
Just vicious lies.
rilkefan
You (and the author of that article) are taking a remarkably broad definition of “lie” – if Hersh says has a photograph of an event, who knows if it happened? Surely he’s lying. When he lies to trick a lawyer into telling the truth – why, that shows he’s a liar generally. When he changes irrelevant details to protect people – he’s a liar. When he makes a mistake and admits it publicly – he’s a liar. When he says something he knows to an every-day standard of certainty but can’t put the last bell-and-whistle on it to reach his written standard, and when he gets that bell-and-whistle and prints essentially the story described, or when he doesn’t get the last detail and can’t write the story, he’s a liar.
Jim Treacher
But when he says, “a word for what I did
Kimmitt
If a cop lies to a suspect to trick him into revealing incriminating evidence, is that officer then no longer credible on the witness stand?
Frank
John- Did you read the article you linked to?
It doesn’t say what you think it does.
I just read it and it made me think we need more Seymore Hirchs.
And only $15,000 speaking fees, that sucks, we need to show him the money.
Brad R.
Yeah, Hersh is an strange character. Personally, I would never take seriously anything he said during a speech: I think he’s rather freakishly paranoid, but that’s probably a quality good investigative reporters need- as long as they keep that paranoia out of their copy.
Aaron
Here’s another Hersh speech issue:
http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2004/10/another-my-lai.html
But let’s not hold him accountable, he’s a journalist.
KC
Brad R, I’ll go with what you have to say.
Mr. Ortiz
That was a fascinating, thanks for the link. Seymour Hersh is one scary dude. I’m talking fear-of-God scary. The jury’s still out as to whether that’s something to hate or respect. I’ll certainly take everything he says, even in print, with a lump of salt from now on. But the impression I got about his “lies” from this story is best summed up by the tagline the Daily Show gave the CBS Rathergate memos: Fake but Accurate.
rilkefan
Here are some actual lies.
Defense Guy
Once again, for the defenders of the left, we get the idea that ‘everybody does it’. Just so you know, pointing to the bad behavior of others does not get you off the hook for your own bad behavior.
Please remember that we give journalists extra rights that the rest of us do not enjoy. In so doing, these so called champions of truth are expected to be just that. Instead, we get lies. Great.
Nash
I’ve followed the Hersh ouvre since the beginning of time–Hersh doesn’t give a damn about whatever judgment you think Suellentrop has so devastating painted on him. Anyone who thinks otherwise just hasn’t followed his career or his modus operandi.
This is a classic example of how he manipulates someone who is interviewing him. It actually lowers my respect for Suellentrop a notch in that I doubt he knew how he was being played by Hersh.
Suellentrop thinks that in this profile piece, he is showing Hersh in a bad light–but to Hersh, there were precisely two important points that he wanted made, and they both nearly comprise the lede here.
One, that Hersh thinks fudging facts in his appearances is not only not wrong, but entirely, ethically correct, necessary even. (We can disagree all we want about whether this is so, but again, he doesn’t give a damn whether we agree.)
Two, he, and no one else, not kneepads Miller, not anyone, is the most plugged into the mid-level Defense establishment for sourcing of anyone doing current day reporting. Miller takes drops from civillian DoD officials and turns them into DoD press releases. Hersh has always gotten actual military types to talk and rarely are these sources’ veracities compromised by subsequent information.
You may not like what he is saying, but he has an incredibly large audience who have granted him their trust–and these are not all a bunch of loony liberals. They include other military types, you might be surprised to find.
Hersh is smiling, not smarting, I’m sure.
Van Helsing
Hersh basically admits he’s a liar, so if you can’t believe what he says, why should you believe what he writes?
Kimmitt
Because he gets proven right a lot?
Nash
What Kimmitt said. Because people serving in the military read and believe him. And keep talking to him. And keep giving him information on the next part of the story.
So, you calling those people who serve us in the military liars, Van Helsing?
S.W. Anderson
Yep, Hersh is foolish to be less than straight up, whatever the venue. Like your mama told you, honesty is the best policy. That’s especially so for journalists.
And yes, Hersh was downright dumb to publicize the fact he tailors what he says to various audiences.
Basically, a case of an overall good reporter doing and saying dumb things. File it under “You-know-what Happens.”