Directive 16 and im going to just get down to the last paragraph. The English Air Force must have been beaten down to such an extent morally that it could no longer muster any power of attack worth mentioning against the german cross but what we know is the English Air Force was not beaten down, that despite tremendous destruction there were a air force exhibited tremendous determination by the way of love that picture because do you see the dog running after the airplane . That humanizes that picture of debt. We also know against overwhelming odds the Royal Air Force did not exactly prevailed against the lufafa that they were able to battle the lufafa to stalemate in the battle of britain which ended up ending in october of 1940. The leadership made the difference. Winston churchill was one of the most dramatic figures in 20th century history said this you may recall about the battle of britain and specifically the raf fighters who went up day after day tracy said never before in the annals of valor has so much been owed by so many to so few. When i started studying this battle more closely when i read a biography of churchill a discovered something that for some reason i didnt know before and that was that the raf at that time only had 2000 pilots. It was only 2000 pilots that went up every day against the full mind of the german lufafa. When i found out the number gave me a lot of encouragement. I believe that journalism is the air war of our time so while it is tempting to become discouraged in the face of some of the statistics i mightve shared with you theres a lot of them and so few of us i continue to believe that while we may give you a number with gods help it wouldnt be enough so thank you very much for your attention today. Thank you john and the Heritage Foundation for hosting me. I look forward to having lunch with some of you and hanging out for the next hour. Thank you. [applause] yes we mentioned we do have copies of the 25th Anniversary Edition of prodigal press. There are more books in the lobby. Thank you for joining us in for an excellent presentation and you for your attendance. We will see you hopefully again in the future, very soon from now. Thank you. You some independent scientists look at monsantos corn after was on the market and found the gene that was silent was switched on and that gene produces an allergen called gamma scene so you may have an allergic reaction in some of you may die from eating corn that is genetically engineered unlabeled as containing an allergen but the process of genetic engineering created a to switch on of the dormant gene and the change of 43 of their genes as well as changes in the shape of proteins. Monsantos soy has a sevenfold increase, up to sevenfold increase in the known allergen. This wasnt intended. This was the background side effects of the process of genetic engineering, the process used to create this soy and corn that we eat. We are world health organization. American medical association, no problem with gmos. Are all of these part of the conspiracy that people with no scientific training is suddenly uncovered and telling us about and if that isnt enough for you here once of other crustaceans. These are not organizations with some scientific sounding name. This is protective organizations. In europe which is antigmo and australia and all over the world and the epa which we Pay Attention to when it comes to global work warning or Something Like that. They say would not pose a Reasonable Risk to human health and the environment and i could come up with dozens of these. [applause] good evening. Thank you all for being here tonight. Its my pleasure to be here with you on this cold wintry evening in new york city i got a text message just before i got a pair from barack obama who sends his regards. I grew up and in worked for a number of years across the bay on Staten Island and we would take the Staten Island ferry across the harbor for big events and there was a big moment for us to go into the city. This to us always with the city and its still the city and its city and its great to be here in new york city the worlds greatest city. Its also great to be here at what i consider to be the worlds greatest library in new york hoblick library. Im sure we would get some dispute on that from london and the library of congress but im sticking with it. Im also sticking with this. I thank you for joining me here tonight to hear about the worlds greatest Investigative ReporterSeymour Hersh, the scoop artist. I see a lot of friends and former students and the rest of you i dont know but i suspect you may be here because you are part of a legion of fans and maybe some of you are enemies of Seymour Hersh. He has a huge following of friends and a huge following of enemies. A number of years ago the new yorker magazine beside hirsh worked for many years for a decade when over the million marc in circulation and David Remnick the editor of new yorker magazine asked how did you get to 1 million he chuckled and said well we have cited hirsh and that push them over the million marc. Thank you all for being here tonight. I also want to thank the New York Public Library deborah hirsh and my former student for interviewing. I spent what should my academic career across the street at the New York Public Library three to 1985 in the mid1980s i was working on my doctoral dissertation on a famous turnofthecentury american reporter named david gray phillips. Phillips was a wellknown muckraking journalist and wrote 27 novels. Across the street was the only place i could go to read all of his 27 novels. Then in the year 2004 i wrote a book on a guy named Charles Edward russell. Charles Edward Russell was very much like sy hersh a muckraking journalist very indignant at conditions and wrote scoop after scoop in story after story and many of his stories appeared in magazines which you cant find anywhere at all. The only place i could find those magazines was across the street at the New York Public Library. Then when i went to work on Seymour Hersh i didnt think i would need the New York Public Library. Hershs books are available. He worked for seven years for the New York Times and its easy to get access to his stories. A decade but the new yorker its easy to get access to his new yorker story so i didnt think i would need the New York Public Library. When he worked for the New York Times his editor was a man named Abe Rosenthal a towering figure in american journalism and when abe died a couple of years ago his wife gave his papers and all of this memos and letters and many of the documents yet compiled gave them to the New York Public Library. There was an archive of the New York Public Library across the street and i spent a lot of time at our cash archive. Right across the street at the New York Public Library so its a Wonderful Library and understand the copy of scoop artist is sitting at the archive on display and the archivists were always efficient and wonderful and i appreciate the efforts of the New York Times in doing that and hope to get back to that archive. Lastly let me just thank dana sedona for in choosing me. Dana was a student of mine at the college of new paltz. Dana was in a student. I particularly appreciate about dana that she would always laugh at my jokes. What you need to do is be looking towards dana and if she laughs than what i than what i have just said is supposed to be funny and that is your cue. Youre supposed to laugh when dana laughs so dana think youve are introduced to me. Last may let be welcome cspan here tonight and thank them for coming here to talk and to hear me talk about Seymour Hersh the scoop artist. Who is this man i call the scoop artist . Sy hersh, Seymour Hersh, Seymour Myron Hersh born in 1937 in chicago to immigrant parents. His father owned a dry cleaner, had a dry cleaning business in chicago and his mother was a housekeeper. He went to Public School in chicago. He went for two years to Community College and then went to the university of chicago law school. Im sorry University Chicago and got a degree in history and then he started law school brady didnt do very well. Law school and side hurst didnt get along very well in very well and he failed in less than a year. Sy hersh is the man most people regard as the best Investigative Reporter in history. He is the man who has won more awards and prizes than any other journalist. He is an icon and a hero to hundreds of american journalists he is the darling of the political left. Hes the man the political right loves to despise and demonize. Hes the man who back in 1969 revealed to us the massacre by american soldiers of 500 civilians in a small village in vietnam. Hes the man who very much often overlooked, the man who singlehandedly got the next administration to ban the production and stop piling up biological weapons, one of his early wonderful achievements that is still held. We will see some of his achievements have been held in some of his achievements have faded as conditions have change in the world. Hes the man who in 1975 revealed to a startled nation that the Central Intelligence agency in direct violation of law was tapping the phones and opening the mail of american citizens. Why do you not look surprised by that . Some things never change. Think nsa, think Edward Snowden. Sy hersh was telling us about the ways of American Government and getting viciously attacked for by the way back in 1975. Today it was Edward Snowden and in 1975 all the he went to Seymour Hersh after scoop on the cia. Hes the man whose book revealed and showed us the dark underside of the Nixon Administration book called the price of power kissinger in the nixon white house. He showed us thousands of deaths that took place under the administration of nexus and Henry Kissinger. Hes the man who in 1990s showed us the dark aside yet of the John Kennedy White house in a book called ,com,com ma a book about the dark side of the white house and im blanking on the name. The dark side of camelot. Sy hershs book the dark side of camelot. See me sorted view of the white house we not gotten up to that point. In the year 2004 at the age of 67 he was viciously attacked for his book on john kennedy. In 2004 he revealed that american soldiers were torturing prisoners at a prison in abu ghraib. The Obama Administration after obama was elected called david redd and say call your man off and tell him to stop. Hurst hersh recently said i think theres something wrong that man he was not invited to the state of the union speech tonight. He is known as flies sly sy spooky side terrace side and the one i heard so many times from so many people are side cant be trusted or those who said he can hit a homerun with that story. Either you love him or hate him. Hes one of the great characters in american life. For four decades he begins his scoops and a work in all 1850s early 1960s and hes been doing what hes been doing for more years than you can imagine. He continues by the way today to be completely and totally indignant and angry at the conditions and thinks he sees around him which separates him from so many journalist. Hes one of the great characters and the stories about him are legion and legendary pretties clearly won one of the toptier figures in american life. When biographers take a look at who is great of american president s would look at Supreme Court justices and aboard winning actors and actresses. We need to look at Seymour Hersh who has been a premier journalist in america for four decades previously great character in two ways. He broke so many of the rules of ethics in journalism thats probably why he gets so many of the stories in them. So many people. He blusters blusters and black males and make so many people angry and i will tell you in the second part of the eli story. In that sense he is infuriating to so many people because of the way he goes about getting his stories. On the other hand he is heroic. Fearless in defatigable, going to places that no one else will go. No one would read write eli story and other people knew the story but sy hersh decided that was the story that had to be written and got it and wrote it. No one would write the israelis have Nuclear Weapons and they have refused to have International Sanctions on my weapons. Hersh wrote that story and made a lot of people very furious. He he is harassed blinded maverick. Hes outspoken and impressive. Thats a snapshot of my guy Seymour Hersh the scoop artist. Ive been trying to figure out exactly what i could do for you tonight here and i thought i would try to dupe to things of my talk. First scoop artist came out in october. Ive been doing talks and interviewinterview s and a number of questions come up repeatedly and maybe i will get ahead of summit or questions. Some of the questions i would like to answer tonight our number one is he the greatest american investigative journalist . This someone else why will him or are their rivals to Seymour Hersh and secondly to the corporate and they writing of this biography . Is this an authorized book . What is it about sy hersh and this book that perhaps resonates today . What does he think of revelations were leaking of material by Edward Snowden clinics where has hersh been for the last two years. Where has he been . As he retired . The answer to that is absolutely not. Hes working on a book on the Cheney Bush Administration and he was just about to publish and thought he was close finishing it and somebody dropped as they often do dropped a trove of documents that indicated to him the covert, intelligence activitieactivitie s that took place during the bush years had extended into the obama year so he had to keep going and is now working on that. He will be back soon and i suspect it will be big headlines. The other thing i thought i could do besides answer those questions is this. One other question i would like to answer and that is the question of will we ever see the likes of the Seymour Hersh again in the age of the internet in bits and pieces of information and . Can we expect to see someone again like the scoop artist . The other thing i thought it would do for you tonight is tell you about whats not in the book about chasing sy hersh. Ive been on this book for probably 10 years or so although my interest goes way back beyond that. So i thought i could talk about my six years of chasing the great muckraking journalist sy hersh. When did i first start chasing sy hersh . Hersh becomes an international wellknown person in 1969. In 1969 he is a freelance journalist. His phone number by the way both his home and Office Phone Number of publicly listed and he calls himself a clearinghouse for tipsters all over the country and every person who has a tip on the story picks up the phone and calls by hersh and you will get him. He will listen to you and he will dismiss you as he did with me any times also. He gives a a tip in the tip is simple. The United States government in fort benning georgia is holding a soldier in the soldier has been accused of either ordering or killing a number of civilians in vietnam. To her she said the story smells like its true. He begins to call washington and kanke confirmation the story. No one will will confirm its true until finally someone says the story is true. He has a lawyer and the lawyers name is latimer and hes in Salt Lake City utah. He says im coming out there. He gets on a plane flies out to Salt Lake City. Latimer begins to talk to him and they have a conversation. He loves and he says to the guy your guys been accused of killing 200, 250 and 50 civilians and latimer says no, no its only 111. He got the famous sy hersh love which is amazing how many generals were fooled by this technique that he used time and time again. He gets a story confirmed, hops on a plane and flies to fort benning georgia. Fort benning georgia is an interesting place one of the huge as military bases in the country. 100,000 140,000 acres. 75,000 soldiers there in a daily basis and sy hersh walks into the base and he says i have to find william callan. Its like looking for a needle in haystack. They would immediately hauled him up and they would never see callie said he had to scope around the base to find william calley. He begins to start in the morning and starts knocking on doors for has anybody seen kallie . William calley. Im looking for william calley. He called t