Cover-Up

In an age where it seems that troubling developments are ubiquitously lurking beneath the surface of public awareness, the need for intrepid investigative journalists to bring these stories to light is probably greater than ever. Unfortunately, such reporters have increasingly become a vanishing breed, especially in the mainstream media. Luckily, though, there are still some committed, courageous correspondents out there – mostly free-lancers – who are diligently working to bring these revelations to light. And one of the most prolific among them is veteran investigator Seymour “Sy” Hersh, who has made a career out of uncovering some of the biggest news stories for over 60 years. That prolific legacy is now the subject of a new documentary from directors Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, showcasing the 88-year-old’s many accomplishments, beginning with his exposé on the 1968 My Lai massacre (one of the Vietnam War’s watershed moments) and continuing up to his present-day reporting on incidents in global hot spots like Ukraine and Gaza. Viewers also learn of his diverse interim initiatives in covering the questionable practices of public figures like Henry Kissinger and clandestine organizations like the CIA, the atrocities of institutions like Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison, and the dubious ventures undertaken by major corporations, all through articles in various periodicals and an array of books. Over the years, Hersh has also bolstered the efforts of fellow journalists by helping to keep their stories alive when public interest in them was tepid, as evidenced, for example, by his supplemental coverage of the Watergate scandal, material that dovetailed the groundbreaking but underappreciated work of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and helped to elevate awareness of that incident. In addition, the film profiles Hersh’s life outside the journalistic trenches, showing how his unplanned entry into the field was itself almost a sort of happy...