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Reporter  By  cover art

Reporter

By: Seymour M. Hersh
Narrated by: Arthur Morey
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Publisher's summary

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018.

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year.

"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. This book is essential reading for every journalist and aspiring journalist the world over." (John le Carre)

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author and preeminent investigative journalist of our time - a heartfelt, hugely revealing memoir of a decades-long career breaking some of the most impactful stories of the last half century, from Washington to Vietnam to the Middle East.

Seymour Hersh's fearless reporting has earned him fame, front-page bylines in virtually every major newspaper in the free world, honors galore, and no small amount of controversy. Now in this memoir he describes what drove him and how he worked as an independent outsider, even at the nation's most prestigious publications. He tells the stories behind the stories - riveting in their own right - as he chases leads, cultivates sources, and grapples with the weight of what he uncovers, daring to challenge official narratives handed down from the powers that be.

In telling these stories, Hersh divulges previously unreported information about some of his biggest scoops, including the My Lai massacre and the horrors at Abu Ghraib. There are also illuminating recollections of some of the giants of American politics and journalism: Ben Bradlee, A. M. Rosenthal, David Remnick, and Henry Kissinger among them. This is essential listening on the power of the printed word at a time when good journalism is under fire as never before.

©2018 Seymour M. Hersh (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A master class in the craft of reporting." (Alan Rusbridger, The New York Times Book Review)

“Reporter is a miracle.... The stories brim with humor, wit, poignancy, pointillist portraits of brilliant color - above all, [Hersh's] own voice.” (Andrew Meier, Bookforum)

What listeners say about Reporter

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Gripping and Important

People interested in recent U.S. history or in journalism will probably want to read this book. It is full of insights into the worlds of journalism, politics, the military, intelligence, etc., from the 1960s through today. Some parts, such as the My Lai chapters, are as gripping as the best spy stories, with the rewarding bonus that truth appears to be something that can actually be attained, at least sometimes, when the many barriers to uncovering and publishing it are overcome. The memoir focuses on these processes, and it is fascinating.

The tone is occasionally self-laudatory, but it feels deserved: Hersh's avowed ambition drove him to excel in his job and to serve the general public immensely.

At the outset you might feel quite pessimistic regarding systems—governmental, military and others—and there is a depressing feeling that investigative journalism is no less needed when a Kennedy runs the country than, say, a Nixon. But you also get a sense that individuals can, and will, make a difference. For that reason, the book left me cautiously optimistic.

The audio version is very well narrated by Arthur Morey, though I wished we could have had it in Hersh's wonderful, less polished, more urgent voice. It comes out as a bit ironic that a figure of the ultimate outsider—such an outsider that Hersh had no problem (and got much flak) revealing the cover-ups of Democratic as well as Republican establishments—should have his story told by a booming, all-American, seven-habits-of-highly-effective-people (to my ears at least, but otherwise excellent) voice. Hersh's tale and Morey's persona are both great enough that you only occasionally reflect about the discrepancy. (I kept a 5-star rating for performance as I believe the casting, not the performance, to leave room for improvement.)

One note of caution, in case you intend to listen to the book with your family or in class: some of the descriptions in the My Lai chapters are particularly gruesome. I believe the descriptions to be warranted (they say much about how war can turn men into barbaric creatures), but you might want to listen ahead before deciding whether your children or pupils can handle them.

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12 people found this helpful

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Seymour Hersh is an American Treasure

This astounding autobiography chronicles the reporting of one of America’s greatest journalists who discovered and brought to light many of the worst aspects of the United States duplicity and misfeasance in the second half of the Twentieth Century and the start of the 21st. In that time he exposed the lies of our government during the Vietnam War, My Lai, Watergate, the CIA’s spying on Americans, the murder and attempted murder of South Americans and Fidel Castro, the duplicity of the neo-Cons in Iraq and Afghanistan, the failure to utilize Bashar al-Ashad and the Syrian Government in the Middle East and many other issues. He meticulously exposes the anti-American attitudes of the Pentagon and McNamara during Viet Nam, Henry Kissinger during a host of wars and crises, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Helms among others. Hersh achieves his success through hard work, dogged research, cultivation of sources and interviews. He is one of a kind and, in my opinion, deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work. Of course, that’s not going to happen anytime soon.
A note on the NY Times review of Dwight Garner whom I admire. Mr. Garner misses the point and it’s a shame. He criticizes Mr. Hersh for not writing a fine memoir as he leaves out his family, his relationship with friends such as Bill Bradlee, Daniel Ellsberg, Bob Woodward and I.F. Stone. That’s not the point of the book. This is about reporting and no one really cares how well Bill Bradlee plays tennis or what Daniel Ellsberg likes to drink. Hersh’s interviews with Assad, William Calley and others, Kissinger’s lying and Dick Cheney’s failure to shake his hand speak volumes about Hersh’s conclusions. It is a remarkable story of how many times Hersh has been called a liar by politicians and others only to be vindicated many years later by declassified materials or admissions of witnesses. Richard Nixon’s fairly recently declassified tapes are a perfect example, but only one of many. Hersh’s discussion of his methods and work is fascinating and this book is a historical wonder.

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Pretty much what I expected

What I should have expected from a brash old school Chicago reporter who recounts his career from early days as city reporter to his rise as a world renowned investigative journalist who has been involved in exposing many of the most important stories of the last fifty years.

Hersh is very aware of his talents and flaws as well as the way he comes across to people, whether they be bosses, colleagues or targets. He’s pretty full of himself as you would expect but his memoir is driven by the intense love he has for the work he’s done so well. It has to be very frightening to be pursued by this guy once you realize he knows your hiding something.

All in all this comes across as an honest book. He brags but also admits his mistakes and regrets. I’ve followed him since the Sixties and I feel that Reporter serves as a fitting review of a career well reported.

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Investigative journalism behind-the-scenes history

It took me months to finish this audio book. I both loved the book and hated the corruption it revealed. The shining America in my mind fragmented and fell into pieces. I was a child or a busy young adult during many of the historic events Seymour Hersh reported on so this was a good way to catch up and learn what happened.

The writing is wonderful and the narration perfect. My interest was held throughout. But, I had to take a break from the book and listen to humor or other distracting fictional books because I was so disappointed in what I was learning. The corruption, the power-hungry, the pathological greed that threaded through the stories was a sad reality. The abuse of civilians in other countries by American soldiers in various wars was disappointing. Raping of women, robbing of families, threatening harm to shake down people for money . . . I was so disheartened by these stories - including murder for entertainment or relief of stress by helicopter pilots in Vietnam . . . so awful.

The early stories of police abuse and killing of black citizens, terrible. But those individual tragedies and injustices were outpaced by the huge and wholesale abuse of American citizens' freedoms and economic rights by those in power.

The book is a wonderful insight into the value of investigative journalism, and I despair that we will have journalists that can afford to be investigative journalists with mainstream media focusing on "talking heads" - or dressed-up people paid big bucks (millions) - to talk on the allowed topics decided on by a few rich and powerful billionaires.

I am glad I listened to this audiobook, although it made me sad to see how the wonderful United States of America has been corrupted wherever power or money is to be had. I admire the author's life work to uncover the truth - and understand his reasons for not revealing everything.

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Lost in the Weeds

I am interested in recent history, politics, journalism and investigations. I thought this book would be right up my alley. I had a very difficult time sticking with it and not daydreaming. Hersh's attention to detail was too much in this format. Too many names, dates, details to the point that I could not follow the big picture, even though I was interested in all of the topics. I've seen and heard Hersh interviewed, and see that this is his style; but without his inflections and enthusiasm, I kept checking out. The narration was pretty monotone. Maybe this was one which should have been read, rather than listened to, to facilitate going back repeatedly

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FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

“Reporter” reveals why freedom of the press is both feared and revered. Seymour Hersh is an investigative reporter. After listening to “Reporter”, one realizes Hersh is among the best journalists of the 20th and 21st century. To many newspaper readers (embarrassingly including this reader) Hersh is not well known. Hersh’s reporting uncovered the My Lai massacre early in his career and followed that with revelations about the clandestine bombing of Cambodia, CIA exposure of domestic spying, and a still controversial contention that Obama lied to the American people about the Abbottabad raid that leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

Hersh shows no fear or favor but his pursuit of facts gives no value to reasons for misleading public perception of events. This is not criticism of the duties of an investigative reporter, but facts do not always speak for themselves. One knows America’s government has mislead the public many times in its history. Whether that misleading is justified or not is not the concern of reporters like Seymour Hersh. To Hersh, all that matters is–facts speak for themselves. Therein lies the fear of freedom of the press.

The problem with thinking that facts speak for themselves is that all the facts revealed are never all the facts. The many books that have been written about historic figures is ample evidence of the problem. With the principle of facts speak for themselves there would be no revisionist history. History is re-written in every generation.

This is not to denigrate the great work reporters like Hersh provide to Americans. Without freedom of the press America would not be America. Even though all the facts are never known, those that are known should be revealed in real time. How else can American freedom be preserved? Hersh, like all good investigative reporters, is not always on the right side of history. Not because his facts are wrong, but that they fail to tell the whole story.

There is good reason to both fear and revere freedom of the press. Fear comes from truthful as well as false reporting of facts. Freedom is dependent on good reporting by reputable reporters.

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Hello, my name is..., and I’m a recovering ignorant.

I’ve always wondered what goes on in the world of politics. I never pretended I understood any of it and always argued with others when they said they possess some knowledge about anyone politicians intentions or “good intentions.”. Seymour Hersch, thank you for giving me some insight. I’ve read a lot of books on Vietnam and other wars but your insights have certainly changed my conception of the behind the scenes. I both appreciate, and feel deeply depressed, about humanity at large. I applaud your efforts.

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The antidote to fake news.

What a tour de force in American politics for the last 50 years. Challenges most of the conventional wisdom especially about foreign policy and intelligence service works.
Sey Hersh memoir is proof why investigational reporting is the soul of democracy.

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Well-told story of a remarkable journalist

May many aspiring and practicing journalists take note and follow Hersh's lead. We need his brand of in-depth, thoughtful, and experienced journalism as much now as ever.

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Interesting anecdotes but needs an editor

From one of the most distinguished reporters of our generation, all the stories are interesting, but I found the writing a bit ponderous and wordy. However the stories needed to be told and Seymour Hersh did a magnificent job of uncovering the truth,most of it ugly about the operations of our government and our military.

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