Seymour Hersh is an American investigative journalist and author, born in Chicago in 1937. He won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for exposing the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, covered Watergate for The New York Times and reported on the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib for The New Yorker in 2004. He now publishes his reporting on Substack.
Brian Rose interviewed Hersh twice on London Real, in February and April 2023. Both conversations followed his February 2023 report on the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, and they also covered the war in Ukraine, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin and the state of journalism.
Both interviews are listed below in order with a short summary.
Biden’s Blackout: How America and Norway Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipelines (February 2023). Recorded two weeks after his Nord Stream report, it is Hersh explaining that story in his own words. For how the story developed, follow it with CIA Covers Up Nord Stream Bombing (April 2023).
In February 2023 Hersh reported, citing a source with knowledge of the planning, that the September 2022 explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were a covert US operation ordered by President Biden and carried out with Norway’s help. Speaking on London Real that month, he explained how he said the operation was planned and why he believed it mattered.
Speaking in April 2023, Hersh said the alternative accounts of the sabotage that appeared after his report were a cover story put together by US intelligence, and that mainstream outlets had not challenged them. He stood by his original reporting.
In the second interview Hersh discussed his Substack report that Ukrainian officials were paying inflated prices for diesel fuel bought with American aid money. He also gave his view of Putin, whom he said was smarter than many in the West assume, and of the risk of the war escalating.
Asked whether real reporting is dead, Hersh said there is no easy path for an investigative reporter and the job is to keep on digging. He also spoke about secrecy, saying he does not believe every secret has to be published.
Hersh’s career runs from My Lai in 1969, through Watergate, the secret bombing of Cambodia and Abu Ghraib, to his Substack work today. He has won five George Polk Awards and two National Magazine Awards.
Seymour Hersh is an American investigative journalist and author, born in Chicago in 1937. He won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for exposing the My Lai massacre, and later reported on Watergate and on Abu Ghraib.
In two 2023 interviews with Brian Rose he talked about his reporting on the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, what he called the cover story that followed, his reporting on Ukraine, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin and the state of investigative journalism.
In February 2023 Hersh reported, citing an anonymous source, that the September 2022 Nord Stream explosions were a covert US operation ordered by President Biden and carried out with help from Norway. He explained that reporting on London Real later that month.
Twice, both in 2023: Biden’s Blackout in February and CIA Covers Up Nord Stream Bombing in April.
Start with Biden’s Blackout from February 2023, where he lays out his Nord Stream report. Then watch the April 2023 interview, where he responds to the accounts that followed.
He won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for exposing the My Lai massacre of Vietnamese civilians by US soldiers and the army’s attempt to cover it up.
Hersh now publishes his reporting on his own Substack newsletter, which is where his Nord Stream and Ukraine stories first appeared.
Official site: seymourhersh.substack.com
Sign up to recieve full episodes of London Real every week.
We take your privacy seriously. We will never sell your information.
