Pulitizer Winner Seymour Hersh on the NSA, Obama and Pathetic America Media

[Alyosha]

http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-nsa-american-media



Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism –
close down the news bureaus of NBC and ABC, sack 90% of editors in
publishing and get back to the fundamental job of journalists which, he
says, is to be an outsider.
It doesn't take much to fire up Hersh, the investigative journalist who has been the nemesis of US presidents since the 1960s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh) and who was once described by the Republican party as "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist".
He
is angry about the timidity of journalists in America, their failure to
challenge the White House and be an unpopular messenger of truth.
Don't
even get him started on the New York Times which, he says, spends "so
much more time carrying water for Obama than I ever thought they would" –
or the death of Osama bin Laden. "Nothing's been done about that story,
it's one big lie, not one word of it is true," he says of the dramatic
US Navy Seals raid in 2011.
Hersh is writing a book about
national security and has devoted a chapter to the bin Laden killing. He
says a recent report put out by an "independent" Pakistani commission
about life in the Abottabad compound in which Bin Laden was holed up
would not stand up to scrutiny. "The Pakistanis put out a report, don't
get me going on it. Let's put it this way, it was done with considerable
American input. It's a bullshit report," he says hinting of revelations
to come in his book.
The Obama administration lies systematically, he claims, yet none of the leviathans of American media,
the TV networks or big print titles, challenge him.
"It's pathetic, they are more than obsequious, they are afraid to pick on this
guy [Obama]," he declares in an interview with the Guardian.
"It used to be when you were in a situation when something very dramatic
happened, the president and the minions around the president had control
of the narrative, you would pretty much know they would do the best
they could to tell the story straight. Now that doesn't happen any more.
Now they take advantage of something like that and they work out how to
re-elect the president.
He isn't even sure if the recent revelations about the depth and breadth of surveillance by the National
Security Agency will have a lasting effect.



He is entirely correct. The media picked Obama and now have to downplay his shittiness so they aren't called on their own hypocrisy.

It's sad when only Jon Stewart, a comedian with a fake news program, covers the news more fairly than the real news media.

[Codename Section]

I think most progressives are embarrassed that they voted for him, or maybe that's wishful thinking on my part. I'd hate to think they're all hypocrites. My sister's husband HATED Bush, HATED the Patriot Act, HATED Gitmo and torture and all that and now he gets all embarrassed when you remind him and makes weak excuses for Obama.

I think deep down they all wish they had voted for Hillary instead.

[ptif219]

http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-nsa-american-media





He is entirely correct. The media picked Obama and now have to downplay his shittiness so they aren't called on their own hypocrisy.

It's sad when only Jon Stewart, a comedian with a fake news program, covers the news more fairly than the real news media.

He also says Bin Laden killing a lie

http://swampland.time.com/2013/09/27/new-yorkers-seymour-hersh-bin-laden-raid-one-big-lie/


The story of how U.S. Navy Seals killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid on an compound in Pakistan is “one big lie,” veteran journalist Seymour Hersh claimed.
“Not one word of it is true,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker writer told the Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-nsa-american-media) in an interview. Hersh is currently working on a book about national security, which reportedly includes a chapter on the bin Laden raid. Hersh hinted at revelations to come in his book.
“It’s pathetic, they are more than obsequious,” Hersh said of the American media. “They are afraid to pick on this guy [Obama].”

[Green Arrow]

Is it any surprise? Our country is morally bankrupt and sick (as in ill, not disgusting).

http://hill-kleerup.org/blog/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/green-arrow-soliloquy.jpg

[Ethereal]

I love listening to real liberals with backbones speak. I think there are still some real ones left in Great Britain, too.

[Codename Section]

How did America get so shitty?

jillian, you're the resident New York liberal. What do you think of what he has to say? Why do you think our news media is afraid to slap Obama around like they slapped Bush around? It's the same policies just a different dude using them.

[Chris]

My dad is a Blue Dog Democrat who rues the day he voted for Obama. There are liberals here who will admit their disappointment. There are partisans who will never.

[jillian]

How did America get so shitty?

@jillian (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=719), you're the resident New York liberal. What do you think of what he has to say? Why do you think our news media is afraid to slap Obama around like they slapped Bush around? It's the same policies just a different dude using them.

i think he shouldn't aim at NBC and CBS when he doesn't say a word about fakenews. that said, they do aim at this president. they aimed at him during syria. they aimed at him during benghazi and the irs thing until it became clear there was no there there. i thought they were namby pamby with bush or they wouldn't have done his bidding by not calling the intel on iraq fake like the UN inspector hans blix said it was.

so yes, i agree with him. i disagree with your premise that they treat one president worse than the other. i agree that they should hold ALL of them to task. I also agree with the presmise that the media coronates candidates like they did romney and obama (after they first coronated hillary). they did it here in NY with christine quinn. but it seems most people don't like being told who to vote for... which is a very good thing.

the one they really slammed was clinton, but i don't know if you'd believe that. (i'm not sure you remember that, though).

this issue is one they've actually been exploring on the show the Newsroom (great show, btw) at one point one of the characters gets up and complains that they're not journalists, they're the candidate's press office. he's right. no one asks the hard questions.

i miss tim russert.

[Alyosha]

i think he shouldn't aim at NBC and CBS when he doesn't say a word about fakenews. that said, they do aim at this president. they aimed at him during syria. they aimed at him during benghazi and the irs thing until it became clear there was no there there. i thought they were namby pamby with bush or they wouldn't have done his bidding by not calling the intel on iraq fake like the UN inspector hans blix said it was.


Girl, were you laughing to yourself when you typed that? You'd have to be. Called him out on Benghazi? LOLWUT?

Syria???

Drones??

Close Gitmo??

Repeal the Patriot Act??

Oh, yeh...they rode his ass straight to the wood shed!

http://24.media.tumblr.com/d8a62af969266782b7db21f46a0dea88/tumblr_mj99e4iDJ41ryfkypo1_400.gif

[jillian]

Girl, were you laughing to yourself when you typed that? You'd have to be. Called him out on Benghazi? LOLWUT?

Syria???

Drones??

Close Gitmo??

Repeal the Patriot Act??

Oh, yeh...they rode his ass straight to the wood shed!



no, because normal people know that there were 13 benghazis when bush was president.

sorry. i don't do fauxrage

http://www.policymic.com/articles/40811/13-benghazis-happened-under-president-bush-and-fox-news-said-nothing

[Peter1469]

no, because normal people know that there were 13 benghazis when bush was president.

sorry. i don't do fauxrage

http://www.policymic.com/articles/40811/13-benghazis-happened-under-president-bush-and-fox-news-said-nothing

Benghazi was not a simple embassy attack, unlike the others you cite too.

[Alyosha]

no, because normal people know that there were 13 benghazis when bush was president.

sorry. i don't do fauxrage

http://www.policymic.com/articles/40811/13-benghazis-happened-under-president-bush-and-fox-news-said-nothing

You're confusing me for a non-libertarian. It should be an outrage every time regardless of who's in office. I don't play partisan crap. I'm pro America, not pro-party.

[AmazonTania]

I love listening to real liberals with backbones speak. I think there are still some real ones left in Great Britain, too.

There are plenty of those in Great Britain, not those lily-livered intellectually deficient cowards known as progressives.

[AmazonTania]

no, because normal people know that there were 13 benghazis when bush was president.

sorry. i don't do fauxrage

http://www.policymic.com/articles/40811/13-benghazis-happened-under-president-bush-and-fox-news-said-nothing

Two wrongs will always make a right.

We get it...

[Chris]

i think he shouldn't aim at NBC and CBS when he doesn't say a word about fakenews. that said, they do aim at this president. they aimed at him during syria. they aimed at him during benghazi and the irs thing until it became clear there was no there there. i thought they were namby pamby with bush or they wouldn't have done his bidding by not calling the intel on iraq fake like the UN inspector hans blix said it was.

so yes, i agree with him. i disagree with your premise that they treat one president worse than the other. i agree that they should hold ALL of them to task. I also agree with the presmise that the media coronates candidates like they did romney and obama (after they first coronated hillary). they did it here in NY with christine quinn. but it seems most people don't like being told who to vote for... which is a very good thing.

the one they really slammed was clinton, but i don't know if you'd believe that. (i'm not sure you remember that, though).

this issue is one they've actually been exploring on the show the Newsroom (great show, btw) at one point one of the characters gets up and complains that they're not journalists, they're the candidate's press office. he's right. no one asks the hard questions.

i miss tim russert.



And yet you defend Obama as if he were a saint. From the time you came to this forum to now I have never once see you take him to task.


When Bush was president I got the same slack for criticising him as I now get from you and your fellow travellers from criticizing Obama.

[Chris]

There are plenty of those in Great Britain, not those lily-livered intellectually deficient cowards known as progressives.



Well you're not one to mince words, and that's good, but there are liberal progressives here, in the US, CA, here on this forum, who are intellectually and emotionally capable of engaging discussion, and then there are those who are not, and they stick out like sore thumbs.

[Green Arrow]

My dad is a Blue Dog Democrat who rues the day he voted for Obama. There are liberals here who will admit their disappointment. There are partisans who will never.

Obama is not a liberal, he's a back-stabbing traitor who promised a new era of liberalism and instead gave us a new era of even harder-core corporatism.

[ptif219]

no, because normal people know that there were 13 benghazis when bush was president.

sorry. i don't do fauxrage

http://www.policymic.com/articles/40811/13-benghazis-happened-under-president-bush-and-fox-news-said-nothing

How many times did Bush Blame a video. Did Bush lie like Obama? We still have no facts from Obama

[Green Arrow]

How many times did Bush Blame a video. Did Bush lie like Obama? We still have no facts from Obama

No, I'm sure Bush never lied like Obama. Obama is on a completely different plane of existence from us normal humans. Bush was a saint.

[ptif219]

No, I'm sure Bush never lied like Obama. Obama is on a completely different plane of existence from us normal humans. Bush was a saint.

Bush did things wrong but he lied less than Obama. Bush would take responsibility for his administration Obama takes responsibility for nothing.

The longer Bush was president the more he moved to the left.

After Bush I said I would not vote lesser of two evils again. I have voted constitution party last 2 presidential elections. I also voted constitutional party for senator because I do not trust Rubio. I do vote GOP for my House Representative because Bill Posey has shown me he is a conservative

[Mainecoons]

Let's see:


faux(foʊ)

adj.artificial or imitation; fake: faux pearls.
[1670–80; < French]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Well, since you pose a strawman, other embassy attacks where our government did everything it was supposed to be to protect it's people, it looks to me like your strawman is about as faux as it comes. Maybe your rage is too and the only thing that is real is that you are a terminal partisan hack who won't hesitate to make anything and everything up to push your partisanship.

What amazes me is that you continue to do so here where you are outed and made the fool daily by a clearly much better educated and politically sophisticated group of people yet you don't learn anything from it.

I suppose we could say that you are just confirming what we know about progressives, namely that you simply do not learn from your failures and errors.

OK