Cover-Up The True Story of How Seymour Hersh’s Reporting Challenged Power, and Exposed the Cost of Truth The first rule of power is silence. The second is denial. For more than half a century, Seymour Hersh has violated both. Cover-Up tells the story of a journalist who refused to accept official answers, even when those answers were wrapped in patriotism, secrecy, and institutional authority. From the moment Hersh uncovered the My Lai massacre, he stepped into a profession where the greatest risks are not physical—but professional, reputational, and moral. This book follows the long arc of Hersh’s work as a study in confrontation: between truth and loyalty, access and independence, belief and evidence. Each investigation forced a reckoning—not only with governments and militaries determined to control the narrative, but with a public often uncertain whether it truly wanted to know what was being done in its name. Rather than celebrating scandal, Cover-Up examines the human cost of exposure. It explores how sustained skepticism reshapes a journalist’s life, how relentless scrutiny erodes alliances, and how institutions respond when their authority is challenged by documentation rather than ideology. At its core, this is a story about the fragile bargain between democracy and secrecy. About how facts survive only when someone is willing to risk isolation to publish them. And about why the question is never whether power will try to bury the truth—but whether anyone will insist on digging it back up. This book is not a verdict. It is a record of resistance.
