New Delhi: Senior editors of top US news outlets like Washington Post, who had gathered for an event to deliberate on press freedom when a young man publicly reprimanded them for not reporting public issues and stonewalling Washington’s sins.
Senior editors of New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Reuters gathered at Columbia Journalism School in New York to discuss democracy, policy and the press during a two-day long event starting Tuesday.
During the session titled ‘Policy and the Press’, a man sitting in the audience fired a barrage of inconvenient questions at The New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn, The Washington Post’s Sally Buzbee, The Los Angeles Times’ Kevin Merida, Reuters’ Alessandra Galloni. The session was moderated by MSNBC journalist Jonathan Capehart.
The man started with questioning the organisers why they had not invited Seymour Hersh, an investigative journalist who has reported on America’s role in the Ukraine war. Hersh is best known for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War in 1969, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.
The man, who was not identified, started by questioning why investigative journalist Seymour Hersh was not invited to the event despite his contributions to journalism, including exposing the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.
The editors were left embarrassed when the man asked why they were not covering the destruction of the Nord Stream energy pipeline by the United States and its allies.
He further stated, “Did you even acknowledge Seymour Hersh? All of you are editors of papers that broke Pentagon, My Lai, Watergate. Are these the same papers or not? I mean, is there anything you have gotten right in the 20 years, or am I mistaken about that?”
He also questioned the newspapers for not taking on the US government for its botch-up and costly interventions in foreign countries for its gains. “It’s just kind of funny because Iraq – wrong, Syria – wrong, Russiagate – really wrong. Okay? The list goes on and on.”
The man accused the media outlets of not reporting on the truth and covering up important issues. He also criticized them for their lack of impartiality and called them cowards for not being critical of the war.
“None of you have actually had any relevancy. The mainstream press is dying. No one is going to listen to you again. You have no credibility among the public. The only ones who care about what you have to say are elite a***oles who have nothing productive to say anymore, and it’s dying off,” he said.
He was later removed from the venue forcibly by security personnel.