Posted on 01/27/2005 2:20:56 PM PST by Cableguy
It has become a cliche to call Bob Woodward and Seymour Hersh the greatest investigative reporters of their generation Woodward the consummate insider, Hersh the ultimate outsider. In truth the differences outweigh the similarities.
Though he achieved fame by bringing down a Republican administration, Woodward is no ideologue. His only bias, as far as I can tell, is in favor of his sources. Within those parameters he produces invaluable, if incomplete, accounts of government deliberations.
Hersh, on the other hand, is the journalistic equivalent of Oliver Stone: a hard-left zealot who subscribes to the old counterculture conceit that a deep, dark conspiracy is running the U.S. government. In the 1960s the boogeyman was the "military- industrial complex." Now it's the "neoconservatives." "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military!" Hersh ranted at UC Berkeley on Oct. 8, 2004.
Hersh doesn't make any bones about his bias. "Bush scares the hell out of me," he said. He told a group in Washington, "I'm a better American than 99% of the guys in the White House," who are "nuts" and "ideologues." In another speech he called Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft "demented." Hersh has also compared what happened at Abu Ghraib with Nazi Germany. (Were American MPs gassing inmates?) He has claimed that since 2001 a "secret unit" of the U.S. government "has been disappearing people just like the Brazilians and Argentinians did." And in his lectures he has spread the legend of how a U.S. Army platoon was supposedly ordered to execute 30 Iraqis guarding a granary.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Tin-foil hat firmly on head!
Another crazy from the extreme left that Brian Lamb of C-Span fame loves to put on the tube is Greg Palast. He runs Hersh a close second in anti-Americanism..
Hersh is an idiot. How someone can be wrong all the time and still remain an icon is truly a liberal phenomenon.
The description of Woodward is pretty accurate. I read "Plan of Attack", which was trumpeted by the left as a Bush/Iraq expose. Which was strange, because anyone who read the book could come only to one conclusion, that the US must to bypass the UN and invade Iraq.
Thanks for the article.
I was reading one of Hirsch's rants yesterday. One thing I noticed is that Hirsch takes one small "fact" and then makes all sort of wild assumptions based on his "fact". Tin foil hat indeed.
Do you know offhand how often the journalistic stuff of his that sees print (as opposed to the loopy claims in speeches outlined here) turns out to be inaccurate? I've often heard that but never bothered to investigate before.
Brian Lamb puts anyone on the air regardless of their views.
I knew he was a journalistic figure from a long time ago, and now we see him all over the place again - what was he doing during the scandal-ridden Clinton years?
This is not funny. Many people will take this guy seriously as a "journalist".
It's nice to see this bird getting some scrutinization.
Let's speculate on *who* his sources are. -That's the interesting part of this story.
It would appear that there are America-loathing Leftist minions in our most sensitive agencies and they'll do or say -anything- when it comes to their petty partisan politics.
Berger, Wilson, Clarke etc, etc, etc...
Seymour Hersh is a monumental failure and a rotten person to boot. Even the MSM usually considers him too "slimey" to bother with.
Here are my bullet points:
A.)Someone on the inside fed this crap to Hersh
B.)I'm pretty sure that person is guilty of "TREASON"
C.)This is yet another case of "LIBERAL DEMOCRATS" doing what they do best.
-Not- a pretty picture.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.