US EditionSeymour Hersh Makes Reluctant Subject of New Documentary
The documentary highlights Hersh's six-decade career exposing U.S. military atrocities and government scandals, emphasizing the ongoing challenges of investigative journalism in a disinformation era.
- On Friday, the documentary Cover-Up premiered at the Venice Film Festival, co-directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, featuring 88-year-old Seymour Hersh who continues publishing on Substack.
- Hersh's career explains the film's impulse, as he exposed the My Lai massacre in 1969 and broke major scoops like Abu Ghraib for nearly 60 years; Laura Poitras first approached him about a film in 2005 and pursued it for years.
- Filmmakers drew on Hersh's personal files and notebooks, using yellow notebooks and a manual typewriter to document Dugway Proving Ground, including the March 1968 nerve-gas incident that killed 6,000 sheep.
- The film argues that adversarial journalism remains vital, framing it as essential to democracy while Laura Poitras warns U.S. information is fragile amid disinformation, and Seymour Hersh now publishes on Substack targeting Donald Trump.
- At the same time, Hersh's legacy is mixed: influential yet divisive, as one overlooked June 22 scoop and disputed claims on Syrian President Bashar al Assad and Nord Stream 2 pipeline face criminal and U.N. investigations.
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54 Articles
Daily Journal
Seymour Hersh makes reluctant subject of new documentary
Seymour Hersh, one of the most influential US journalists of the last 60 years, is the sometimes reluctant subject of a new documentary that probes his biggest scoops and occasional missteps, as well as his private life.
Poitras film at Venice spotlights journalist's battles with US power
VENICE — "Cover-Up," a documentary chronicling the career of U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, offering a portrait of a reporter whose work has exposed some of America's darkest secrets.
‘Cover-Up’ Review: Riveting Laura Poitras-Mark Obenhaus Documentary Examines Career Of Legendary Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh – Venice Film Festival
The morning of November 13, 1969, the presses rolled at the Chicago Sun-Times with an explosive front-page story: “Officer Charged With Murdering 109 in Viet.” The shocking incident uncovered in the report would come to be known as the My Lai Massacre, in which soldiers of a U.S. Army platoon led by Lt. William Calley […]
‘Cover-Up’ Review: Reporter Seymour Hersh Anchors Laura Poitras’ Brilliant and Damning Look at 50 Years of America’s Worst Moral Crimes
Mark Obenhaus co-directs an unflinching epic that connects the dots between the Mỹ Lai Massacre and the genocide in Gaza.
‘Cover-Up’ Review: Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ Sharp, Sensitive Doc Brings Relentless Truth-Seeker Seymour Hersh Into Focus
In their out-of-competition Venice entry, the filmmakers profile the prominent investigative reporter, who's still going strong at 88.
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