Glenn Greenwald: Seymour Hersh is being attacked for reporting “what most rational people already believe”
Speaking on his YouTube show, Glenn Greenwald went off on reporters seeking to discredit fellow investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. “What you can’t do, what Hersh did, is you spread what are ‘conspiracy theories’ that are against the narrative of the US security state, that undermine US foreign policy. That’s the only thing that’s prohibited” Greenwald said.
Seymour Hersh has “long been hated in Washington circles … for his refusal to play ball” which “used to be the hallmark” of good reporting, but not in the “era of corporatized media”, Greenwald said.
Hersh is being attacked for reporting “what most rational people already believe: That it was not Russia which blew up its own Nord Stream pipeline,” but “instead it was the US.” Greenwald called Seymour Hersh, “the most illustrious journalist of his generation.”
Greenwald cited a story by Mia Jankowicz on “Business Insider” titled “The claim by a discredited journalist that the US secretly blew up the Nord Stream pipeline is proving a gift to Putin.”
“Who is ‘Business Insider’ and Mia Jankowicz to talk about Sy Hersh in this way? Who discredited Sy Hersh?”, Greenwald said. “Not a single person at this site has ever broken a story, yet they talk about him as if he’s some sort of unmentionable.”
“It’s proving a gift to Putin? Who cares? The only question a real journalist asks is, ‘is the story true?’ and if it’s true you publish it, without regard to who it helps or hurts. This obsession with Is something ‘a gift to Trump’ or a gift to Putin – this is not something a real journalist thinks or cares about. The only thing you care about is ‘Is it true?’”
“These people are propagandists. That’s how they think”, Greenwald said.
Business Insider claimed Hersh’s reporting was “poorly-sourced, conspiratorial, and over-reliant on anonymous sources.” Democrats sought to impeach President Trump over fake charges by an “anonymous whistleblower” who turned out to be a Biden veteran working with Rep Adam Schiff.
Business Insider cited shady propaganda outlet Bellingcat, which “was deeply critical of (Hersh’s) reporting on chemical attacks in Syria.”
Glenn Greenwald called Bellingcat, “essentially a US-government funded outlet”, which “receives funding from the NED, which was created by the CIA and the State Department to interfere in other countries and destabilize governments like Syria.”
“It also gets funding from the EU”, Greenwald said. “We get a lot of our money from donors like the Open Society Foundation,” Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins told the Guardian 2018.
“Of course Bellingcat doesn’t like Seymour Hersh because his reporting undermines the narrative of the U.S. security state and western media outlets”, Greenwald said.
“And the giants of journalism at Vox”, Greenwald said, “raised doubts about (Hersh’s) infamous 2015 claim that President Barack Obama did not, in fact, mastermind the killing of Osama bin Laden”, according to Business Insider.
“Many of the claims about the killing of Osama bin Laden were lies, (including) how bin Laden picked up his wives and used them as shields, that it was bin Laden and his crew who started shooting – most of those claims ended up changing,” Greenwald said.
“But you cannot express skepticism of the claims of the US government or the US security state”, Greenwald said, “or this is what happens to you. They’ll start calling you ‘discredited’, a ‘conspiracy theorist’.”
“The people who have lied the most, who have spread the most conspiracy theories, are the ones who have been promoted an enriched most within corporate journalism”, Greenwald said. “That’s the only way to get ahead.” The difference is, “you have to spread lies and conspiracy theories on behalf of the CIA, and that advance the interests of the US government. That is not only permitted, that’s required to be promoted”, according to Greenwald.
“What you can’t do, what Hersh did, is you spread what are ‘conspiracy theories’ that are against the narrative of the US security state, that undermine US foreign policy. That’s the only thing that’s prohibited. That’s what gets you kicked out of journalism.”
“They wouldn’t be denying” the Hersh story “if it wasn’t true”.