War correspondent Ben Anderson joins host Chris Hedges to detail the numbing physical and psychological elements of war reporting — and ponders whether or not the truth can really change anything.
Personally, I don’t believe war reporting is useful in discouraging the impulse to kill strangers. I have no war experience myself, and I very humbly defer to the authors, but I was protesting at troop trains in Berkeley in 1963, and I was in Washington in 1968. We were sure that ours was the last generation of war makers.
Today, it’s worse than ever. It’s the greatest disappointment of my life.
Reporting of war is no more a discouragement to its fans than pornography is to pedophiles.
The famous photograph by Robert Capa of a falling Spanish soldier is just as likely to grace the wall of a pacifist, as that of a soldier. What disgusts one, thrills the other. As for truth, what good is truth to combat evil? Evil, as we’re seeing daily in Gaza, isn’t afraid of the truth. They kill on camera and with impunity. As Chomsky said, speaking truth to power is pointless. Power already knows the truth.
And Gaza? Gaza is the only war that’s been completely hidden, and its journalists murdered. That’s because it’s not a war, it’s pure murder, and that, as even NYTimes readers are slowly realizing, is a step too far even for them.
It's hard to reconcile your "very humbly defer[ing] to the authors" while disparaging their work as being "useless."
The reporting of Seymour Hersh on the My Lai massacre helped end the Vietnam War. At one point, LBJ stated, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost the war."
The reporting by Jeremy Scahill and Amy Goodman drove Blackwater back under its rock, at least until they could try to change their brand.
Examples of war reportage giving the rest of us what we need to resist are too numerous to list, and every little bit helps.
I didn’t disparage their work, and I didn’t use the word useless. I said it’s “not useful in discouraging the impulse to kill strangers”. I also never suggested that the work of good writers is not useful in upholding a moral standard.
But, as in one of Chris Hedges’ more trenchant statements: “I don’t fight fascists because I think I will win. I fight fascist because they’re fascists.”
The same logic can be applied to any existential dilemma.
I learned a lot from this discussion, and it was sobering. I consider Chris and Ben heroes, but what a price to pay for educating the rest of us. They question whether their reporting had an impact, whether anything really changed as a result. Maybe it depends on their audience. I think they’ve had a huge impact on their public audience. Less so on policy. But that only highlights our delusions about living in a democracy. It’s up to the public to use the information they bring us at great personal sacrifice to effect change on policy. We have so far fallen short in our job as citizens, they haven’t failed at theirs. I came of age during the Viet Nam War. Surely the press coverage, including the photographs, helped end that war. Some of us tried to use what brave journalists, aid workers, and health care providers have revealed to us about Gaza to influence the DNC to adopt a resolution that includes an arms embargo. It didn’t, but at least it withdrew the weaker, meaningless resolution. I guess all we can do is keep the pressure up. I am writing to the 17 Democratic senators who refused to vote for Sanders’ bill to bar U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Israel. I’ve asked them to step outside themselves and try to see themselves as a lot of us see them — as people who have betrayed the rule of law, both domestic and international, their oaths of office, their constituents and the American people, all for a far-right foreign government that is committing genocide. Accepting money from foreign governments, including AIPAC and the rest of the Israeli lobby, and especially, voting accordingly, against the will of the American people, should be a criminal offense. Why should it be treated differently than what happened to Senator Menendez for taking bribes from Egypt? Since persuasion hasn’t worked, maybe public shaming will — and withholding our votes. People who vote for Democrats who have supported genocide in order not to have Trump have been willing to sacrifice the Palestinian people for that hoped for outcome. Wouldn’t it be better to insist on candidates who don’t support genocide?
They may impact their audience Nancy, but not those who implement wars, or could bring them to their end. They got their wars in the Middle East all of which were pre-planned, and although the audience seemed to go easier on Obama then Bush/Cheney he attacked Syria, Libya, and couldn't mind his own business in Ukraine which helped create the war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Our elected officials take their orders and money from AIPAC, and say nothing about a genocide in Gaza, and applauded the man who is implementing it when he paid them a visit. Their careers are their top priority. The anti-war movement in this 21st century died, and it had a rather early death.
Thank you both for what you have done and continue to do. Does telling the world what is really going on do any good? It appears not. Some of us do respond and become active. But that too seems not to do any good. As one who remembers the end of WW2 and was horrified when I learned of the concentration camps. The whole world became consumed with guilt. Who could possibly object to the Jews having a home of their own. We were led to believe that that area had no people in it anyway. Just today there was a LetterTotheEditor in our local paper from a Rabbi questioning the idea of a Palestinian state. When I see what's going on there now, thanks to people like you two, I wonder how many of the original settlers envisioned that they, the abused, would become the abusers. What is it that's in our DNA that allows this.
Personally, I don’t believe war reporting is useful in discouraging the impulse to kill strangers. I have no war experience myself, and I very humbly defer to the authors, but I was protesting at troop trains in Berkeley in 1963, and I was in Washington in 1968. We were sure that ours was the last generation of war makers.
Today, it’s worse than ever. It’s the greatest disappointment of my life.
Reporting of war is no more a discouragement to its fans than pornography is to pedophiles.
The famous photograph by Robert Capa of a falling Spanish soldier is just as likely to grace the wall of a pacifist, as that of a soldier. What disgusts one, thrills the other. As for truth, what good is truth to combat evil? Evil, as we’re seeing daily in Gaza, isn’t afraid of the truth. They kill on camera and with impunity. As Chomsky said, speaking truth to power is pointless. Power already knows the truth.
And Gaza? Gaza is the only war that’s been completely hidden, and its journalists murdered. That’s because it’s not a war, it’s pure murder, and that, as even NYTimes readers are slowly realizing, is a step too far even for them.
It's hard to reconcile your "very humbly defer[ing] to the authors" while disparaging their work as being "useless."
The reporting of Seymour Hersh on the My Lai massacre helped end the Vietnam War. At one point, LBJ stated, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost the war."
The reporting by Jeremy Scahill and Amy Goodman drove Blackwater back under its rock, at least until they could try to change their brand.
Examples of war reportage giving the rest of us what we need to resist are too numerous to list, and every little bit helps.
I didn’t disparage their work, and I didn’t use the word useless. I said it’s “not useful in discouraging the impulse to kill strangers”. I also never suggested that the work of good writers is not useful in upholding a moral standard.
But, as in one of Chris Hedges’ more trenchant statements: “I don’t fight fascists because I think I will win. I fight fascist because they’re fascists.”
The same logic can be applied to any existential dilemma.
I learned a lot from this discussion, and it was sobering. I consider Chris and Ben heroes, but what a price to pay for educating the rest of us. They question whether their reporting had an impact, whether anything really changed as a result. Maybe it depends on their audience. I think they’ve had a huge impact on their public audience. Less so on policy. But that only highlights our delusions about living in a democracy. It’s up to the public to use the information they bring us at great personal sacrifice to effect change on policy. We have so far fallen short in our job as citizens, they haven’t failed at theirs. I came of age during the Viet Nam War. Surely the press coverage, including the photographs, helped end that war. Some of us tried to use what brave journalists, aid workers, and health care providers have revealed to us about Gaza to influence the DNC to adopt a resolution that includes an arms embargo. It didn’t, but at least it withdrew the weaker, meaningless resolution. I guess all we can do is keep the pressure up. I am writing to the 17 Democratic senators who refused to vote for Sanders’ bill to bar U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Israel. I’ve asked them to step outside themselves and try to see themselves as a lot of us see them — as people who have betrayed the rule of law, both domestic and international, their oaths of office, their constituents and the American people, all for a far-right foreign government that is committing genocide. Accepting money from foreign governments, including AIPAC and the rest of the Israeli lobby, and especially, voting accordingly, against the will of the American people, should be a criminal offense. Why should it be treated differently than what happened to Senator Menendez for taking bribes from Egypt? Since persuasion hasn’t worked, maybe public shaming will — and withholding our votes. People who vote for Democrats who have supported genocide in order not to have Trump have been willing to sacrifice the Palestinian people for that hoped for outcome. Wouldn’t it be better to insist on candidates who don’t support genocide?
They may impact their audience Nancy, but not those who implement wars, or could bring them to their end. They got their wars in the Middle East all of which were pre-planned, and although the audience seemed to go easier on Obama then Bush/Cheney he attacked Syria, Libya, and couldn't mind his own business in Ukraine which helped create the war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Our elected officials take their orders and money from AIPAC, and say nothing about a genocide in Gaza, and applauded the man who is implementing it when he paid them a visit. Their careers are their top priority. The anti-war movement in this 21st century died, and it had a rather early death.
Brilliant, touching enlightening interview. One of best, Mr. Hedges. Thank you.
Thank you both for what you have done and continue to do. Does telling the world what is really going on do any good? It appears not. Some of us do respond and become active. But that too seems not to do any good. As one who remembers the end of WW2 and was horrified when I learned of the concentration camps. The whole world became consumed with guilt. Who could possibly object to the Jews having a home of their own. We were led to believe that that area had no people in it anyway. Just today there was a LetterTotheEditor in our local paper from a Rabbi questioning the idea of a Palestinian state. When I see what's going on there now, thanks to people like you two, I wonder how many of the original settlers envisioned that they, the abused, would become the abusers. What is it that's in our DNA that allows this.
Thank you. That was so informative.