Seymour Hersh

It may be one of the most penetrating--or disgusting--revelations ever printed about John F. Kennedy. In "The Dark Side of Camelot" (Little, Brown), Seymour Hersh alleges that in September 1963, JFK severely tore a groin muscle during a poolside sexual romp at Bing Crosby's Southern California home.

Like any investigative journalist, Seymour M. Hersh seeks out secrets to uncover and publish. Being a good investigator, he has a deft hand in presenting them: "Lt. William L. Calley Jr., 26 years old, is a mild-mannered, boyish-looking Vietnam combat veteran with the nickname 'Rusty.' The Army is completing an investigation of charges that he deliberately murdered at least 109 Vietnamese civilians...." That is how Hersh first became famous in 1969, by uncovering not the My Lai massacre -- U.S.

The Maxwell Empire struck back Thursday in a nasty spat between the British publishing mogul and a noted American journalist, a battle that some already have dubbed "Mirrorgate."

Both Sy Hersh and Bob Woodward made their first major national impact as scruffy outsiders -- Hersh in 1969, when he broke the story of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, Woodward in 1972, when he and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story. Hersh is still a scruffy outsider. Woodward is neither. But both are now back in the news -- and influencing the news -- in a big way.

"And Samson said, ' Let me die with the Philistines. ' And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. " --Judges, 17:30 Late in 1958, during a Middle East crisis, an American U-2 reconnaissance plane snapped a series of fateful photographs over a quiet corner of the Negev desert in southern Israel.

Lawyers for both sides in a $100-million libel suit brought by a former prime minister of India against U.S. journalist Seymour Hersh rested their cases in the Chicago trial, with the jury expected to reach a verdict this week. Morarji Desai is suing Hersh over the claim in his 1983 book, "The Price of Power," that Desai was paid $20,000 a year by the CIA during the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration to reveal Indian government secrets.

In the Nov. 9 edition of The Times, which featured a front-page article about Seymour Hersh's book on the late President John F. Kennedy, a book debunking the confident and capable image of Kennedy and attacking him for fatal character flaws, there is a Robert Scheer review of "Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes." While Hersh relies on hearsay, conjecture and secondhand accounts that would never withstand evidentiary scrutiny in a court of law, the Nixon tapes are self-authenticating.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh did not libel former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai in a book that called the Indian official a paid CIA informant, a federal jury found Friday. Desai, prime minister from 1977 to 1979, contended that Hersh libeled him in his 1983 book "The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House." Desai's lawyer, Cyriac D. Kappil, had asked the six-member jury to award $3.5 million to his client.

Seymour Hersh, an oft-maligned investigative journalist who is enjoying something of a wartime revival, is passionate about tennis. So ferocious is his interest in the sport that on many mornings, he takes to the streets of his Cleveland Park neighborhood with racket, ball and golden retriever. Sy serves. Leo returns. "He plays tennis like he does his reporting," observes journalist Daniel Schorr, a friend, neighbor and former tennis partner. "He plays hard, and he doesn't give up."

Both Sy Hersh and Bob Woodward made their first major national impact as scruffy outsiders -- Hersh in 1969, when he broke the story of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, Woodward in 1972, when he and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story. Hersh is still a scruffy outsider. Woodward is neither. But both are now back in the news -- and influencing the news -- in a big way.

Seymour Hersh, an oft-maligned investigative journalist who is enjoying something of a wartime revival, is passionate about tennis. So ferocious is his interest in the sport that on many mornings, he takes to the streets of his Cleveland Park neighborhood with racket, ball and golden retriever. Sy serves. Leo returns. "He plays tennis like he does his reporting," observes journalist Daniel Schorr, a friend, neighbor and former tennis partner. "He plays hard, and he doesn't give up."

In his new book, "The Dark Side of Camelot," Seymour M. Hersh, a prize-winning investigative reporter, attempts to radically revise the history of John F. Kennedy. Soon after an assassin's bullets cut short the JFK presidency, books by his former aides and speech writers, notably "A Thousand Days" by Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

In the Nov. 9 edition of The Times, which featured a front-page article about Seymour Hersh's book on the late President John F. Kennedy, a book debunking the confident and capable image of Kennedy and attacking him for fatal character flaws, there is a Robert Scheer review of "Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes." While Hersh relies on hearsay, conjecture and secondhand accounts that would never withstand evidentiary scrutiny in a court of law, the Nixon tapes are self-authenticating.

It may be one of the most penetrating--or disgusting--revelations ever printed about John F. Kennedy. In "The Dark Side of Camelot" (Little, Brown), Seymour Hersh alleges that in September 1963, JFK severely tore a groin muscle during a poolside sexual romp at Bing Crosby's Southern California home.

The money, muscle and influence of organized crime helped John F. Kennedy win the closely contested 1960 election, investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh contends in a new book on the Kennedy presidency. And once Kennedy was inaugurated, Robert F. Kennedy, his brother and attorney general, refused to pursue FBI evidence into widespread voting fraud, Hersh alleges.

"And Samson said, ' Let me die with the Philistines. ' And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. " --Judges, 17:30 Late in 1958, during a Middle East crisis, an American U-2 reconnaissance plane snapped a series of fateful photographs over a quiet corner of the Negev desert in southern Israel.

The money, muscle and influence of organized crime helped John F. Kennedy win the closely contested 1960 election, investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh contends in a new book on the Kennedy presidency. And once Kennedy was inaugurated, Robert F. Kennedy, his brother and attorney general, refused to pursue FBI evidence into widespread voting fraud, Hersh alleges.

The Maxwell Empire struck back Thursday in a nasty spat between the British publishing mogul and a noted American journalist, a battle that some already have dubbed "Mirrorgate."

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh did not libel former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai in a book that called the Indian official a paid CIA informant, a federal jury found Friday. Desai, prime minister from 1977 to 1979, contended that Hersh libeled him in his 1983 book "The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House." Desai's lawyer, Cyriac D. Kappil, had asked the six-member jury to award $3.5 million to his client.