Some thoughts about Seymour Hersh’s latest big story.
I have no way to to know if the claims are accurate either in part or in totality. And neither does Seymour, or anybody else except those who are allegedly on the inside of the program. Uncritical acceptance or flat denial by anybody else reveals their biases, not the accuracy of the claims.
The bulk of the press is treating the claims as valid. There’s an old joke about the lawyer who can swim in shark infested waters because of “professional courtesy.” There seems to be “professional courtesy” within the media – any story that once appears is treated as true – sometimes long after it’s been debunked.
Either Hersh is making stuff up, or he’s being lied to by sources, or his sources are telling the truth but breaking their word and the law by revealing classified information. None of these possibilities is particularly appealing.
Hersh throws the code word “Copper Green” around like 007 threw “Grand Slam” in Goldfinger.
I don’t find unnamed sources to be persuasive, and Hersh didn’t have good sources in the Army a year ago, As this story from 2003 makes abundantly clear. And all the meat of the current piece is contained in quotes from unnamed sources in the military.
Much is made of the military industrial complex, but little mention is made of the legal journalism complex. Journalists get information from three places – people who are regular sources for their own reasons; people who are one-time sources for their own reasons; and lawyers who do all the legwork and tiresome investigation in order to taint jury pools (think breast implants, side saddle fuel tanks, or rogue accelerating Audis). In all three cases, the journalist is in effect working for the source, and thus the sources motivations shape the coverage. And as pointed out in the Mudville Gazette, Hersh is working for the soldiers currently in the dock for the Abu Ghraib debacle whose defense is, in a dreary recapitulation of past failed excuses, “we were just following orders.” Gee, imagine, he just happened to have fall into his lap this program that would indicate that they really were just following orders. How convenient. And of course, Hersh feels no need to disclose his connection to the defense attorneys since he’s not being paid money. Such connections are never mentioned for that reason, despite the fact that information is money to journalists. The MIC at least defends the country, while the LJC defrauds it.
