There are few veteran journalists in this world as uncompromising as Seymour Hersh. I can think of only one off the top of my head to be honest, The Independent’s Robert Fisk. There is a definite line in the journalistic world between being pugnacious and dangerous. There are those, such as Bob Woodward, that, having made a name for themselves, operate within the political inner sanctum and therefore have to tread lightly ever after to ensure that relationships are not damaged. Then there is the journalistic majority who have to play the ever damaging political game of placating the views of their publishers and not walking too far out onto limbs in fear of the repercussions.

Then there is Seymour Hersh.

The current US political establishment has labeled Hersh “the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist.” Over the last seven years he has hounded the Bush Administration at ever turn, penning quintessential pieces such as Preparing The Battlefield, Torture At Abu Ghraib, and The Gray Zone, one of the most important pieces published during the Bush era in my opinion.

It is journalists like Hersh that not only exemplify the true spirit of the Fourth Estate, but are its keepers.

Today’s Guardian has a fantastic piece on Hersh that I invite you to read. I also highly recommend reading the afore mentioned article The Gray Zone.

Seymour Hersh’s latest piece for The New Yorker, Preparing The Battlefield: The Bush Administration Steps Up Its Secret Moves Against Iran, is a must read…

“Admiral Fallon acknowledged, when I spoke to him in June, that he had heard that there were people in the White House who were upset by his public statements. “Too many people believe you have to be either for or against the Iranians,” he told me. “Let’s get serious. Eighty million people live there, and everyone’s an individual. The idea that they’re only one way or another is nonsense.”

You can also visit The New Yorker and listen to an audio presentation of Hersh commenting on US-Iran developments.