Seymour Hersh Biography Quotes 5 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Seymour Myron Hersh was born on April 8, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois. The son of Jewish immigrants, he grew up on the South Side and attended public schools before entering the University of Chicago. He graduated in 1958 with a degree in history, supporting himself with odd jobs while developing a fascination with the workings of power and the craft of reporting. After a brief and unsuccessful stint in law school, he found his way to journalism, where the rhythms of deadlines and the lure of digging for hidden facts suited him.

Formative Years in the Newsroom
Hersh began at the City News Bureau of Chicago, a rigorous training ground that emphasized accuracy and shoe-leather reporting. He moved to the Associated Press, first in Chicago and then in Washington, where he covered the Pentagon. The intensity of the Vietnam era sharpened his focus on national security and the military. In 1968 he briefly served as press secretary to Senator Eugene McCarthy during McCarthy's antiwar presidential campaign, an experience that reinforced Hersh's preference for reporting over advocacy and sent him back to independent journalism with renewed purpose.

The My Lai Expose
In 1969 Hersh, working as an independent reporter, uncovered the story that would define his early career: the massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. His reporting detailed the actions of soldiers from Charlie Company and the subsequent efforts to conceal the atrocity. He identified key figures, including Lieutenant William Calley and Captain Ernest Medina, and laid bare the failures of accountability in the chain of command. Distributed by the Dispatch News Service, his series shocked the public and helped force official inquiries. For this work, he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, marking him as a leading investigative journalist of his generation.

The New York Times and Intelligence Reporting
In 1972 Hersh joined The New York Times, where he covered the intelligence community, the Pentagon, and the nexus of foreign policy and domestic politics during the Nixon and Ford administrations. In 1974 he revealed illegal domestic activities by the Central Intelligence Agency, reporting on surveillance of antiwar activists and other overreach at a moment when public trust had been battered by Watergate. His stories helped spur congressional investigations, including the Senate inquiry led by Senator Frank Church, and confronted the CIA leadership under Director William Colby with unprecedented scrutiny. Inside the Times, editors such as A. M. Rosenthal backed the reporting while fielding pressure from the intelligence establishment and the White House of President Gerald Ford.

Books and Long-Form Investigations
Hersh extended his investigations into books that examined how power is exercised behind closed doors. My Lai 4 and Cover-up chronicled the massacre and the Army's internal handling of it. The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House offered a deeply reported portrait of Henry Kissinger's role in the conduct of foreign policy and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Samson Option explored Israel's nuclear program. The Dark Side of Camelot presented a contentious view of John F. Kennedy's life and political network, igniting debate over sources and standards. Across these works, Hersh combined interviews with documentary evidence to reconstruct policy decisions from the perspective of those who made and implemented them.

The New Yorker and the War on Terror
Beginning in the 1990s, Hersh wrote regularly for The New Yorker, where his reporting focused on military and intelligence issues. After 9/11, he published influential pieces on the conduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004 he exposed abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, drawing on the findings of Major General Antonio Taguba and other sources. The articles named officials responsible for oversight failures, casting a harsh light on the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the administration of President George W. Bush. The work won major journalism awards and helped define public understanding of detainee abuse and the policy decisions that enabled it.

Later Work and Controversies
In subsequent years, Hersh continued to pursue stories on intelligence operations, targeted killings, and covert warfare. His accounts of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and of chemical weapons use in the Syrian conflict, published outside The New Yorker in outlets such as the London Review of Books and the German newspaper Die Welt, drew sharp criticism from U.S. officials and many analysts. The Obama White House publicly disputed aspects of his bin Laden narrative, and independent researchers challenged his Syria reporting. Supporters praised his willingness to question official accounts; detractors argued that reliance on unnamed sources and contested evidence risked misleading the public. Hersh addressed his methods and career in his memoir, Reporter, reflecting on editors, sources, and the tensions between secrecy and accountability.

Awards, Influence, and Legacy
Over decades Hersh accumulated numerous honors, including the Pulitzer Prize and multiple George Polk Awards, alongside significant book prizes. His investigations intersected with the decisions of powerful figures such as Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, William Colby, Donald Rumsfeld, and presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to Barack Obama. Editors including A. M. Rosenthal at the New York Times and David Remnick at The New Yorker were central counterparts in vetting, shaping, or contesting his work. Hersh's reporting helped trigger reforms, public inquiries, and long-running debates over the balance between national security and democratic oversight.

Approach and Impact
Hersh's method emphasizes cultivating sources inside institutions, corroborating with documents when possible, and pressing against official narratives. The approach yielded pathbreaking exposés and, at times, sharpened disputes over verification and transparency. Whether revealing the realities of My Lai, probing the CIA's domestic actions in the 1970s, or pressing questions about the post-9/11 security state, he has remained a polarizing and influential figure. His career maps the arc of modern American investigative journalism, from Vietnam to the digital era, and underscores the enduring friction between secret power and public accountability.

Our collection contains 5 quotes who is written by Seymour, under the main topics: Freedom - Human Rights - War - Pride.