The New Yorker writer blasts Bush, media

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh takes aim at the current administration and the media who cover him.

By Rick Waters '95

The decision to invade Iraq will be judged by history as possibly the worst mistake an American president has made, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist said on campus this week.

Seymour Hersh, author and investigative reporter for The New Yorker, told an audience of about 500 in Ed Landreth Auditorium Tuesday night that President George W. Bush is the most radical president the nation has had because of his unwavering goal to increase freedom around the globe.

"He believes he is somehow destined to spread democracy," Hersh said. "His believe is that once Saddam Hussein was dispensed with democracy would spread like water on a palm branch. First, Iraq, then Iran, Pakistan, Lebanon, and on and on. I think we are witnessing otherwise."

Hersh gained worldwide recognition for his exposure of the My Lai Massacre and cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he later received the Pulitzer Prize as a correspondent for the Associated Press. More recently, he uncovered the abuse of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by U.S. military personnel, as a writer for The New Yorker. He was the first lecturer in the Center for Civic Literacy's spring lecture series, co-sponsored by the AddRan College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Schieffer School of Journalism and Leadership Fort Worth.

Hersh lamented the press corp's lack of access to President Bush and described his motivations as "mysterious."

"Does he do what he does because of God? Does he do what he does because his father didn't accomplish it? Or is it Step 13 of a recovery program? I don't know. But we do know that his plans cannot be deviated from."

In reality, Bush's plans have backfired, Hersh said, because the United States is now considered the "bad guy" in the war.

"We've lost our edge on morality," he said. "Iraq is like a corpse and it's [Commanding General] Petraeus's job to put rouge on it."

Speaking on the same day of the Texas primaries, Hersh said he wouldn't mind giving up audience members for those participating in the evening caucuses.

"The bad news first - there are 321 days left in the reign of King George II," Hersh said. "And the good news is that tomorrow, when we wake up, there will be one less day."

The election of a new president offers hope, he said. But whomever is elected will face emotional crises when bringing soldiers home from the war.

The press' complacent role in the days leading up to the war was disappointing, he said. Rather than reporting the facts, the press parroted what officials were saying without digging deeper into the issues.

"Twenty to 30 years from now, historians will look at this decade as the collapse of the press. It has completely failed. There's a lack of trust with the press and it's probably very deserved."

David Bedford, instructor of Spanish and Latin American studies, told the TCU Daily Skiff that he has read Hersh's articles in The New Yorker for years, saying his speech was "chucked full of interesting information that we need to know."

Thomas Pressly, junior communication studies major, told the Skiff although he has different views than Hersh, the speaker did well in expressing where he thinks the country is headed.

"We will all agree that in 321 days our country needs to unite around whoever is elected president and deal with the difficult policies that the world is continuing to experience," said Pressly, president of the Student Government Association.

The speech was a part of the Center of Civic Literacy Series and was co-sponsored by the AddRan College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Schieffer School of Journalism and Leadership Fort Worth.

This report contains material from the TCU Daily Skiff.

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