'Reporter is just wonderful. Truly a great life,and what shines out of the book,amid the low cunning and tireless legwork,is Hersh's warmth and humanity. Essential reading for every journalist and aspiring journalist the world over'John le CarréIn the early 1950s,teenage Seymour Hersh was finishing high school anduniversity - while running the family's struggling dry cleaning store ina Southside Chicago ghetto. Today,he is one of America's premierinvestigative journalists,whose fearless reporting has earned him fame,front-page bylines in virtually every newspaper in the world,astaggering collection of awards,and no small amount of controversy.Reporteris the story of how he did it. It is a story of slog,ingenuity anddefiance,following Hersh from his first job as a crime reporter for theChicago City News Bureau,through his Pulitzer Prize-winning freelanceinvestigative exposes,to the heights of his reporting for The New York Times and the New Yorker.It is a tale of night-time encounters with great Civil Rights leaders,unauthorised meetings with Pentagon officials,raucous dinners withCanadian soldiers in Hanoi,tense phone calls with Secretaries of State,desperate to save face; of exposing myriad military and politicalwrongdoing,from My Lai to Watergate to Abu Ghraib,and the cynicalcover-ups that followed in Washington and New York. Here too areunforgettable encounters with some of the most formidable figures fromrecent decades,from Saul Bellow to Martin Luther King Jr.,from HenryKissinger to Bashar al-Assad.Ultimately,in unfurling Seymour Hersh's life and career,Reporter tells a story of twentieth-century America,in all its excitement and darkness.
Publisher: Penguin Books LtdISBN: 9780141989099Number of pages: 400Weight: 500 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 35 mm
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One of America's greatest investigative reporters.In a city and culture where screeching talk shows and preening columnists have largely supplanted old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting,and most'investigative reporting'consists of the collection of carefully dispensed leaks,Hersh stands virtually alone.The most feared investigative reporter in Washington.If there is a smoking gun lying around the White House,the reporter most likely to find it is Seymour M. Hersh.A whip-smart,preternaturally energetic outsider who...assembled a body of work that helps to radically revise the way Americans see their government.A groundbreaking journalist who has revealed some of America's darkest secrets.The last great American reporter.Hersh's exposés of gross abuses by members of the US military in Vietnam and Iraq have earned him worldwide fame and high journalistic honors.Quite simply,the greatest investigative journalist of his era.Hersh is necessary reading for anyone remotely interested in what went wrong and continues to go wrong in IraqI've long admired the skill and independence with which Hersh has brought important and concealed information to lightOne of the most skilled investigative journalists in American history shares his saga in compelling detail...Hersh takes readers behind the scenes as he exposes corrupt U.S. foreign policy,Defense Department bumbling in numerous wars,political coverups during Watergate,private sector corporate scandals,and torture tactics used by the U.S. government against alleged terrorists after 9/11. The author shares insightful (and sometimes searing) anecdotes about fellow journalists,presidents and their cronies,military generals,and numerous celebrities. Readers interested in a primer about investigative techniques will find Hersh a generous teacher. Candor is the driving force in this outstanding book. Rarely has a journalist's memoir come together so well,with admirable measures of self-deprecation,transparent pride,readable prose style,and honesty.Powerful...There's gripping journalistic intrigue aplenty as (Hersh) susses out sources and documents,fences with officials,and fields death threats....Hersh himself is brash and direct,but never cynical,and his memoir is as riveting as the great journalistic exposés he produced.Candid and revelatory...Compared to the contemporary field of blogs,bots,and opinion-driven reportage,the last half of the twentieth-century can look like the heyday of honest and critical journalism. But even now,Hersh remains at the vanguard of tenacious and purposeful writers who speak truth to power,and surely he's inspiring the best at work now. Journalism junkies will devour this insider's account of a distinguished career.Reporter is just wonderful. Truly a great life,and what shines out of the book,amid the low cunning and tireless legwork,is Hersh's warmth and humanity. Essential reading for every journalist and aspiring journalist the world over
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