"Cover-Up" with Mark Obenhaus

It took 20 years of asking by an Oscar-winning filmmaker, but famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh finally said, “Yes.” The result is "Cover-Up", a revelatory new documentary portrait of Hersh’s fascinating life and career by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”) and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Mark Obenhaus (“Steep”).

 

Joining Ken on the pod, Mark (who jointly directed the film with Laura) discusses the origins of his professional relationship with Hersh and why the stars finally aligned for Hersh to agree to the project. With a career going back to the 1960’s, Hersh virtually invented the idea of the modern investigative reporter. He sniffed out the facts of the horrific My Lai massacre by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam and exposed the top brass’ scandalous cover-up. Following My Lai, Hersh went on to expose cover-ups in Watergate that became front page news in the “New York Times.” Years later, during the Iraq War, Hersh’s reporting would again expose high-level cover-ups, revealing the graphic details of torture committed by the CIA and the U.S. Army at Abu Ghraib prison. “Cover-Up” also addresses Hersh’s shortcomings as well. Time and again, Hersh’s work and sources have exposed abuses of power at the highest level of the American government. It turns out that the full story was well worth waiting for.

 

Hidden Gem:

“Seeds”

 

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