“Malleable and predictable” news editors get promoted, says Hersh

When it comes to covering U.S. politics in recent years, journalists failed, says American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

Hersh spoke on the CBC cultural affairs show Q October 9th, just before he is set to start off the Shaw Festival’s fall lecture series at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. 

He said journalists “didn’t do our job” when it came to understanding what George Bush and Dick Cheney were doing in Iraq and “went along with them and became a part of the team.” He continued:

“When you have editors who want stories and are willing to take risks,
you have a great newspaper. But most of the people who get
promoted [to top editors] fit the corporate model, are malleable and
predictable … less interested in stories and more interested in not
making waves.”

During the interview, Hersh also commented that bloggers have “replaced the mainstream news media as cutting-edge news gatherers.”