This morning at the GIJC, the american journalist Seymour Hersh talked in details about his work on My Lai in Vietnam, Abu Graïb, and about his particular relationship with sources. Between several anecdotes, he confessed about his vision of investigation.
Protecting sources :
« I don’t keep any record in my computers, I have 300 notebooks, and when I type anything on my computer, I make sure I don’t write any names. I settle phone reunions. But since 9/11, the government can have access to each number I compose, it can lead to problems. Therefore I’ve got a secret office, I don’t use the New Yorker offices neither phones, I use the phone of a colleague. I never talk about crucial information on the phone. If someone finds who your sources, you’re in a bad situation. »
« Without anonymous sources you can’t work, even if we feel some kind of pressure from editors. If I were president of United States, I would campaign against anonymous sources! But I’m a journalist...»
Choosing sources :
« Retired people are one of my main sources. A retired general speaks more than before because he gets bored. I had a lot of chance with retired officers, and also in the CIA retired people are more open… »
About the government :
« Government is meant to keep things secret, and my job is to discover it. In the government they talk a lot more about journalists than we could think. They always manage to know what will be published in the news papers tomorrow.»
« Governments lie. We don’t lie, we make mistakes but we’re not liars, that’s the difference. »
About journalism :
« There is no retirement in our job, can you imagine stopping what you are doing? If yes, you didn’t pick the good job…»
" Don’t try to be sensationnal, if the story’s good, i twill be easy to tell it ".
" Give information before asking for it."
« The journalists have access to more information now than before. You have to look at the future with optimism »