Two weeks into my attempts to get a chronology of March/April 2022 peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia published, I wrote to Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh for advice. Despite what I’d written having endorsement from extremely senior people, who were directly involved in the talks (and the likes of Professor John Mearsheimer subsequently having said “This is excellent; I actually learned a lot”), I could not get my writing published anywhere. Sy wrote back almost immediately:
“I’ve learned to stop weeping about the failures of the mainstream media today. Life is just too short. I did mainstream reporting for more than four decades and it is just useless now. If I did some whining in my memoir, and I guess I did, I wish I hadn’t. Just useless. The curve is down, down, down.”
At first – this only two weeks into my pitching my piece – I thought (forget his Pulitzer Prize): surely the hastily sent ramblings of an 86-year-old?
But no! I spent a full ten weeks trying to get my chronology published, and ultimately had to settle for putting it in video and self-publishing on X. And Sy, at 86, is as productive and energetic as ever – often now publishing twice weekly on his Substack.
I take some comfort in knowing this is not a new problem. Here’s Sy, in 1997, looking back on his time as a young investigative journalist. Clip for 30 seconds:
“You know, Charlie? Let me tell you something about the press. I’ll tell you what hard times were. In ‘69, I get an interview with Lt. Calley, and I go find his lawyer, and I get a copy of the charge sheet that says he killed 111 ‘Oriental’ human beings [the actual number of victims turned out to be more than five hundred]… I’ve been Eugene McCarthy’s press secretary; I’ve been an AP correspondent; I’ve written for the New York Times, Life magazine… I spend six weeks, every major newspaper… nobody will buy my story… I can’t get it in print. That was really hard times.”
I don’t wish to compare my work with uncovering the My Lai massacre, but clips like this kept me going.
And though I was unsuccessful in getting my chronology published in a prominent outlet, I do think my efforts have been a small ripple in expanding the Overton window. The Spectator, which I endeavoured to hold to account for their coverage of Ukraine, permitted one of their writers, Lionel Shriver, to write in their recent Christmas issue:
“I say this with a heavy heart: if the writing is on the wall – if a negotiated settlement that cedes captured territory to Putin looks inevitable – maybe it’s time to urge the Zelensky government to enter talks to bring this depressing war to its depressing conclusion… Dragging out an entrenched stalemate merely racks up a higher body count and destroys more Ukrainian homes and infrastructure to no purpose. Sitting back and giving Ukrainians just enough weaponry to keep fighting to the last man and woman, only for the country to finally end up where we always knew it would, is not just immoral. It’s murder.”
This prominently in The Spectator’s Christmas edition – in which the Prime Minister was interviewed for the cover story. I sincerely hope such realism is now breaking through to the people running the country.
Though writers today have the luxury of Substack and X, for anyone ever struggling to get something published in traditional media (or simply to better understand its internal workings), I offer a few further clips from Sy that gave me great solace.
1) Dead rat with lice:
“You understand, guys like me, as I later learned – my job was essentially to walk into editors’ offices with a dead rat full of lice, and dump it on their desk. ‘This is a story that’s going to take a lot of time, it may not work, and it’s going to get people who want to sue you, and people who will hate you.’”
2) You’re a total pain in the ass in newsrooms:
“No editors like bad stories. You think they do, but they rarely do… I’ve watched at the New York Times. Those who get promoted are those who are going to be less violent. More easy to contain. That’s just instinctive… You want to promote people who aren’t going to make you uncomfortable. It happens much too much in journalism.”
3) A hilarious story on the lengths Sy went to in persuading a NYT editor to publish him:
“I of course went nuts. It’s 2:30am. The phone rings a long time. I rang 10 times, then I rang 10 more times.”
(On it finally being answered, Sy asked the editor’s wife for the phone number of the editor’s mistress.)
4) Insightful on how The New Yorker fact-checks:
“The people I talk to have to talk independently and separately to a fact-checker. That’s an incredible process, and the people I talk to have to trust me enough when I say the confidentiality pledge I’m giving you, I transfer to the fact-checker… I arrange a time to call.
The New Yorker fact-checking mechanism is really expensive. They still do this amazing, insane fact-checking… They fact-check fiction!”
5) “I’m stubborn… There’s no reason not to publish what you know”:
“I offered it first to The New Yorker and there was hesitancy there. I waited until after the election, and then I did it, because I’m stubborn. I’m not gonna let a story sit. There’s no reason not to publish what you know.”
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Having information that you know to be true, and not being able to get anyone to acknowledge it, or to publish it, is psychologically harrowing. Dragging on long enough, it is a near sentence to the madhouse.
That Sy has persevered in his work for 50+ years is immensely commendable.
I share this compilation of clips in the hope it inspires some others to follow in his footsteps.
PS. The YouTube version of my chronology on Ukraine/Russia peace talks:
And a few other things I found helpful…
- This clip from the film Living:
- From Felix Dennis, and his book The Narrow Road:
- Naftali Bennett on his own attempts at mediation: “Where there is no one, be someone.”
“I have a rule in life: where there is no one, be someone. Meaning, step up and assume responsibility.”
Interesting stuff. Ive never really known what to make of Seymour Hersh, this helps me get a better sense of his perspective. Thanks for putting it together.
5 ❣️s for the Sy Hersh video Anthology❗️ True democracies would prosecute the Organized Crimes of CorporateFascist RICO Occupiers of democracy who Target, Whistleblowers & Journalists for exposing their CRIMINAL DEPRAVITY. There are so many INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS who rose/rise up with BOOTS ON THE GROUND EVIDENCE, to Champion the preservation of Human & Civil Rights centered governing; Gary Webb, Julian Assange, Consortium News’ Brian Becker, Scheerpost ‘s Robert Scheer, Chris Hedges, Australia’s John Pilger. It’s barely scratching the surface to add to their ranks Independent New Media Reporters like those of The Grayzone, The Empire Files, The New Atlas, Geopolitical Economy Report, Whitney Webb, along with George Carlin Legacy Comedians such as Jimmy Dore and Lee Camp, to cite a minuscule few of democracy’s Heroes DECLARED & CONDEMNED as Enemies of “U.S.Interests” by DCs CorporateFascist InsiderTrader, ResourceRape-RegimeChange CANNIBALS, whose SINGULAR OBSESSION is roaming about the world demanding HUMAN SACRIFICES, Burnt Offerings to “The Security” of their personal, GlobalDomination Profits.