Our special summer issue is out now. Get a discounted subscription to our print magazine today. Your support keeps us publishing!

Cover-Up Follows Seymour Hersh’s Life Uncovering Secrets

Interview with
Laura Poitras

Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Netflix documentary Cover-Up follows the life and work of legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Cover-Up depicts the kind of maverick journalism we desperately need in our authoritarian times.

Portrait Of Seymour Hersh

“A theme throughout the film is obviously government abuse of power. But also the failure of the legacy media to do its job.” — Laura Poitras on Cover-Up, her new documentary about legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. (Diana Walker / The Chronicle Collection / Getty Images)

As the Trump regime swings a wrecking ball at the news media, codirectors Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus have created a master class in investigative reporting. Their new documentary Cover-Up, which premieres on Netflix on December 26, chronicles the earth-shaking reportage by eighty-eight-year-old Seymour Hersh, who began his journalistic career as a humble copyboy at Chicago’s City News Bureau and went on to out-scoop his way to earn a Pulitzer Prize, five George Polk Awards, and other accolades.

The muckraking Hersh has exposed some of America’s worst scandals, as well as the corporate press, and in their almost two-hour documentary two cinematic sleuths paint a compelling picture of one of our most prominent truthtellers.

Obenhaus has co-won three Emmy Awards, while codirector Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour (2014), about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, earned the Best Documentary Academy Award, a Polk Award, and a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service that Poitras shared with the Washington Post and the Guardian. Poitras’ My Country, My Country (2006)and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) were also nominated for Best Documentary Oscars. In addition to winning an International Documentary Association award for Feature Documentaries, Cover-Up has been shortlisted for 2026’s Best Documentary Oscar and has been a favorite on the film festival circuit, receiving awards and nominations.

Sorry, but this article is available to active subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.