Fake news and a lot of lousy reporting

During a talk at the University of Regina in Canada last night, Pulitzer prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh had a go at the lousy reporting and fake news coming out of war zones today. When he’s looking for real news he turns to translations of the local press,

War reporters do not have access to the same kinds of information as he had in Vietnam because they are imbedded with the troops, he explained. “It has led to a lot of lousy reporting,” said Hersh.
He added the reporters begin to like the soldiers they are surrounded by and that can cloud their journalistic judgment. The journalists are also forced to stay in the military compounds because they would be “walking dead men” if they were to leave.
He added that if the cameras were to pull away from the reporters’ stand-ups that we see on TV, viewers would see dozens of military securing the area, with snipers on the rooftops and helicopters circling. It is fake news, he admitted, and said that when he really wants to know what is going on in the Middle East he turns to translations of the local media. link



Topics: