The Laura Poitras-Mark Obenhaus documentary “Cover Up” (2025) features the work of renown investigative reporter Sy Hersh. Boy, could we use him now.
Hersh is a legend. His work exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up, Watergate, secret bombings of Cambodia, CIA domestic spying, Abu Ghraib torture, and other horrifying betrayals of the public trust earned him a Pulitzer Prize and countless other awards. Let’s put it this way. You did not want to be on the receiving end of a phone call from Sy Hersh back in those days. He was tenacious. He was indefatigable. He spoke truth to power. As such, bad actors in high places doing bad things often paid the price. And yes, no doubt, he made some mistakes, too.
Hersh’s heyday was proximate to 1975, the year highlighted in Morgan Neville’s documentary “Breakdown: 1975” (2025). One can argue that 1975 ranks very high with 1968, 1979, and 2001 among the worst years in U.S. history. After all, the unforgivable war in Vietnam, the Nixon-Kissinger mendacity, Watergate, and the severe economic consequences of all of it flowed liked manure across Old Glory back in 1975.
One can also argue, however, that 2026 might be worse than all of them. The criminality, corruption, cruelty, indecency, incompetence, stupidity, abject inhumanity, and foolishness about war at the highest levels of the U.S. government are undeniably worse today than in previous chapters of U.S. history. The current Administration makes the Nixon Administration look like a picnic.
One major difference between now and then, however, is that investigative journalism really mattered back then. Media were far more independent than today; not small cogs in greedy conglomerates’ wheels of monetization. Media actually thought of themselves as the Fourth Estate. Their accountability journalism played a key checks-and-balances role. Another stark difference was that a majority of Americans were authentically horrified when politicians were outed for abusing the public trust, no matter their political loyalties. By comparison today, it’s all blue-red nonsense with truth mediated by what side you’re on. Ultimately, of course, the criminal and corrupt president in 1974 was forced to resign by leaders of his own party. No such condition exists today for putting country over party - and personal profit.
Senator Frank Church (D-ID) said it well in 1975 as the U.S. grappled with efforts to reform what had been a runaway government working expressly against the peoples’ interests. “If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the tech capacity the intel community has given to government, could enable it to impose total tyranny. And there would be no way to fight back.” That was more than 50 years ago. It’s happening right now, and it's terrifying. What will the documentary "2026: Breakdown" tell us 50 years from now? Stay tuned.
