Chris Hedges | |
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 Hedges,c. 2007 | |
| Born | Christopher Lynn Hedges (1956-09-18)September 18, 1956 (age 69) St. Johnsbury,Vermont, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Education | Colgate University (BA) Harvard University (M.Div.) |
| Spouse | Eunice Wong |
| Children | 4 |
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| chrishedges | |
Christopher Lynn Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist, author, commentator andPresbyterian minister.
In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelancewar correspondent inCentral America forThe Christian Science Monitor,NPR, andThe Dallas Morning News. Hedges reported forThe New York Times from 1990 to 2005,[1] and served as theTimes Middle East Bureau Chief andBalkan Bureau Chief during thewars in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001, Hedges contributed toThe New York Times staff entry that received the 2002Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the paper's coverage of global terrorism.
Hedges produced a weekly column forTruthdig for 14 years until the outlet's hiatus in 2020. His books includeWar Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), a finalist for theNational Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction;American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2007);Death of the Liberal Class (2010); andDays of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012), written with cartoonistJoe Sacco. Hedges writes a weekly column atScheerpost and hosts the programThe Chris Hedges Report.
Hedges was born on September 18, 1956, inSt. Johnsbury,Vermont. His father was aWorld War II veteran,Presbyterian minister, and anti-war activist.[2][3] He was raised in ruralSchoharie County,New York, southwest ofAlbany.
Hedges received a scholarship to attendLoomis Chaffee School, a private boarding school inWindsor,Connecticut.[4] Hedges founded anunderground newspaper at the school that was banned by the administration and resulted in his being put on probation.[5] He participated intrack and graduated in 1975.[6]
Hedges enrolled intoColgate University and, though heterosexual, helped found anLGBT student group.[3] Hedges received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Colgate in 1979. He sought a postgraduate education atHarvard University'sDivinity School, where he studied underJames Luther Adams in addition to studying classics andClassical Greek. While attending Harvard, Hedges lived inRoxbury, a neighborhood inBoston, where he worked as a seminarian and ran a small church.[7] He was also a member of the Greater Boston YMCA's boxing team, writing that the boxing gym was "the only place I felt safe."[8][9][10]
Hedges gained an interest in pursuing journalism as a means of furthering ministry after a period of close communications with British journalistRobert Cox, who was at that time reporting on theDirty War inArgentina. While having one year left before graduation, Hedges briefly dropped out of Harvard to study Spanish inCochabamba,Bolivia with the support of the CatholicMaryknoll Fathers.[7] Following Cox's recommendation, Hedges informally prepared for work as a reporter through studying a four-volume set ofcollected works byGeorge Orwell. Hedges made some freelance contributions forThe Washington Post,[11] and later covered theFalklands War from Buenos Aires forNational Public Radio using equipment given to him by NPR reporterWilliam Buzenberg. Hedges returned to the United States to complete aMaster of Divinity degree at Harvard in 1983.[12]
Hedges continued his career as a freelance journalist in Latin America. From 1983 to 1984, he covered the conflicts in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala forThe Christian Science Monitor and NPR.[13][14] He was hired as the Central America Bureau Chief forThe Dallas Morning News in 1984 and held this position until 1988.[15]Noam Chomsky wrote of Hedges at the time that he was one of the "few US journalists in Central America who merit the title."[16]
In 1990, Hedges was hired byThe New York Times. He covered the firstGulf War for the paper, where he refused to participate in the military pool system that restricted the movement and reporting of journalists.[17][18] He was arrested by theUnited States Army and had his press credentials revoked, but continued to defy the military restrictions to report outside the pool system. Hedges subsequently entered Kuwait withU.S. Marine Corps members who were distrustful of the Army's press control. WithinThe New York Times,R.W. Apple Jr. supported Hedges's defiance of the pool system.[17]
Hedges, along withNeal Conan, was taken prisoner inBasra after the war by theIraqi Republican Guard during the Shiite uprising.[19] He was freed after a week. Hedges was appointed the paper's Middle East Bureau Chief in 1991. His reporting on the atrocities committed bySaddam Hussein in the Kurdish-held parts of northern Iraq saw the Iraqi leader offer a bounty for anyone who killed Hedges, along with other western journalists and aid workers in the region. Several aid workers and journalists, including the German reporter Lissy Schmidt, were assassinated and others were severely wounded.[20]
In 1995, Hedges was named the Balkan Bureau Chief forThe New York Times. He was based in Sarajevo when the city was being hit by over 300 shells a day by the surrounding Bosnia Serbs.[21][22] He reported on theSrebrenica massacre in July 1995 and shortly after the war uncovered what appeared to be one of the central collection points and hiding places for perhaps thousands of corpses at the large open pit Ljubija mine during theBosnian Serbs' ethnic cleansing campaign.[23][24] He and the photographer Wade Goddard were the first reporters to travel with armed units of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Kosovo.[25] Hedges' investigative piece was published inThe New York Times in June 1999, detailing howHashim Thaçi, leader of theKosovo Liberation Army (and later president of Kosovo), directed a campaign in which as many as half a dozen top rebel commanders were assassinated and many others were brutally purged to consolidate his power.[26] Thaçi, indicted by the special court inThe Hague on 10 counts of war crimes, is in detention in The Hague awaiting trial.[27]
Hedges was aNieman Fellow at Harvard University during the 1998–1999 academic year, and chose to studyLatin because of his prior interest in theclassics from studying Classical Greek.[7][28][29]
Hedges ended his career of reporting in active conflicts in October 2000.[5]
Hedges was based in Paris following the attacks of9/11, coveringAl Qaeda in Europe and the Middle East. He was a member of aNew York Times investigative team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2002 for their coverage of Al Qaeda.[30] Hedges also received theAmnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in 2002.[31] Hedges's contribution to theTimes award was an October 2001 article describing Al Qaeda's foiled bombing plot of theEmbassy of the United States, Paris.[32]
In a collaboration betweenThe New York Times andFrontline,[33] Hedges authored three articles covering the claims of false Iraqi defectors. Hedges worked on behalf ofLowell Bergman ofFrontline, who could not travel to Beirut to interview the purported defectors. The trip was organized byAhmed Chalabi, whom Hedges considered to be unreliable. The first defector Hedges interviewed identified himself as Lt. General Jamal al-Ghurairy. Hedges consulted the U.S. Embassy in Turkey to confirm that identity, and the embassy falsely did so,[34] as the real al-Ghurairy had never left Iraq.
Hedges wrote a November 8, 2001Times cover story about two former Iraqi military commanders who claimed to havetrained foreign mujahedeen how to hijack planes[35] and destroy vital American infrastructure. The two defectors also asserted there was a secret compound inSalman Pak facility where a German scientist was producing biological weapons.[36] TheFrontline report featured statements from American officials who doubted the claims of the defectors.[33]
Conservative outlets referenced the articles in justifying the invasion of Iraq.[34] In the aftermath of the revelations that the Iraqi defectors were not legitimate, Hedges defended his comportment since he had done the story as a favor to Lowell Bergman, adding that "There has to be a level of trust between reporters. We cover each other's sources when it's a good story because otherwise everyone would get hold of it."[34]
In 2003, Hedges gave a commencement speech at the graduation ceremony forRockford College in which he criticized the ongoingAmerican invasion of Iraq.[37] His speech was received with boos, and his microphone was shut off three minutes after he began speaking.[38][39] Hedges had to end the commencement speech short because of the various student disruptions,[40] which included an additional microphone cut, foghorns,[41] and chants of "God Bless America."[39]
The New York Times criticized Hedges's statements and issued him a formal reprimand for "public remarks that could undermine public trust in the paper's impartiality". Hedges cited this reprimand as a motivation for resigning from theTimes in 2005.[42] In 2013 he said "Either I muzzled myself to pay fealty to my career, which on a personal sense would be to betray my father, or I spoke out and realized that my relationship with my employer was terminal. And so at that point I left before they got rid of me. But I knew that, you know, I wasn't going to be able to stay".[43]
During the uncertainty following the loss of employment, Hedges was looking for posts to teachhigh school English classes.[44] In a 2008 interview, Hedges acknowledged that he ultimately had not struggled, adding that "every year since I left theTimes, I've made at least twice the salary I made at the paper. So, in a way, I didn't pay for it. And I have maintained what is most valuable to me, which is my integrity and my voice."[1]
In 2005, Hedges became a senior fellow atType Media Center and a columnist atTruthdig, in addition to writing books and teaching inmates at a New Jersey correctional institution.[42][45]
In 2006, Hedges was awarded aLannan Literary Fellowship for Nonfiction.[46]
Hedges produced a weekly column inTruthdig for 14 years. He was fired along with all of the editorial staff in March 2020.[47] Hedges and the staff had gone on strike earlier in the month to protest the publisher's attempt to fire the Editor-in-ChiefRobert Scheer, demand an end to a series of unfair labor practices and the right to form a union.[48] Hedges resumed work with Scheer after the launch ofScheerpost.
In June 2014, Christopher Ketcham published an article onThe New Republic website accusing Hedges of plagiarism in several Truthdig columns and a 2010Harper's Magazine article.[49] The Truthdig posts were updated to give attribution to their author,[50] and theHarper's article was withdrawn.[49]
Additional accusations of plagiarism from Ketcham were countered by an independent investigation from theType Media Center.[51][52]
Hedges has worked for a decade teaching writing classes in prisons in New Jersey through a program offered byPrinceton University[53] and laterRutgers University.[3] A class that Hedges taught atEast Jersey State Prison in 2013 went on to collaborate in the creation of a play titledCaged.[53] Hedges has become a fierce critic ofmass incarceration in the United States,[54] and his experience as an educator in New Jersey prisons served as inspiration for his 2021 bookOur Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison.
On October 5, 2014, Hedges was ordained aminister within thePresbyterian Church. He was installed as Associate Pastor and Minister of Social Witness and Prison Ministry at the Second Presbyterian Church Elizabeth inElizabeth, New Jersey.[55] He mentioned being rejected for ordination 30 years earlier, saying that "going toEl Salvador as a reporter was not something the Presbyterian Church at the time recognized as a valid ministry, and a committee rejected my 'call.'"[56]
Hedges began hosting the television showOn Contact for the Russian-government owned networkRT America in June 2016. Hedges, who said he had not known much about the network at the time, was approached to make a show by RT America president Mikhail "Misha" Solodovnikov, who promised him complete editorial independence.[44][57]
On Contact provided commentary on social issues, often profiling non-fiction authors and their recently published works, with Hedges aiming to follow the approach of former public television shows.On Contact was nominated for anEmmy in 2017, RT America's first significant award nomination, but the award was won bySteve.[44]
On March 3, 2022, RT America ceased operations following the widespread deplatforming of Russian-sponsored media after the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[44] The run ofOn Contact ended. In a March 7, 2022Scheerpost column (reprinted bySalon), Hedges wrote about the reprimand he received fromThe New York Times for hisIraq War opposition, comparing it to RT America, which made no comment on Hedges's condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hedges said he "might have paid with" his job for making negative comments about the war on Ukraine, "but at least for those six days", after the invasion, he remained in post.[58][relevant? –discuss]
Hedges, in collaboration withThe Real News Network (TRNN), began production forThe Chris Hedges Report in April 2022.[59] In May 2024, TRNN announced that they had amicably ended their production partnership with Hedges, citing editorial limitations fornonprofit newsrooms like TRNN.[60]The Chris Hedges Report continues to be produced through Hedges'sSubstack.
In the2008 United States presidential campaign, Hedges was a speech writer for candidateRalph Nader.[61] Hedges supported Green Party candidateJill Stein in the 2016 election.[44]
On April 15, 2016, Hedges was arrested, along with 100 other protesters, during a sit-in outside theCapitol building in Washington, D.C., duringDemocracy Spring to protest the influence of corporatelobbying andspecial interests in politics.[62]
On May 27, 2020, Hedges announced that he would run as aGreen Party candidate inNew Jersey's 12th congressional district for the2020 elections. After being informed the following day that running for office would conflict withFCCfairness doctrine rules because he was at that time hosting the nationally broadcast RT America television showOn Contact, Hedges decided not to pursue office in order to keep hosting the show.[63][64]
In September 2020, Hedges spoke at theMovement for a People's Party convention.[65]
Class struggle defines most of human history. Marx got this right. It is not a new story. The rich, throughout history, have found ways to subjugate and re-subjugate the masses. And the masses, throughout history, have cyclically awoken to throw off their chains.
Hedges has described himself as asocialist[67][68] and ananarchist.[69][70] His booksDeath of the Liberal Class andEmpire of Illusion are strongly critical ofAmerican liberalism.
Hedges's 2007 bookAmerican Fascists describes thefundamentalistChristian right in the United States as afascist movement. In March 2008, Hedges published the bookI Don't Believe in Atheists, in which he argues thatnew atheism presents a danger that is similar to religious extremism.[71]
In March 2022, Hedges condemned Russia's aggression as criminal and criticizedNATO's expansion as a dangerous and predictable provocation that baited Russia to initiate a conflict. Hedges called for Russia's withdrawal, an immediate ceasefire and moratorium on arms shipments to Ukraine.[72] He later stated that the invasion was "set to become a lengthywar of attrition, one funded and backed by an increasingly bellicose United States."[73] Hedges criticized the $40 billion aid package for Ukraine in a May 2022 piece, which he says demonstrates that the United States is "trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism" as the country "rots, morally, politically, economically, and physically," with no real plans to address the epidemic ofmass shootings, decaying infrastructure, lack ofuniversal health-care, risingincome inequality,student debt,child poverty and theopioid epidemic.[74] In his 2022 bookThe Greatest Evil is War, Hedges wrote that "Russia has every right to feel threatened, betrayed, and angry. But to understand is not to condone. The invasion of Ukraine, under post-Nuremberg laws, is a criminal war of aggression."[75]
Hedges accused online social networks of censoring those who opposed the "dominant narrative on Ukraine", and criticized the decision to removeScott Ritter from Twitter for providing the "counter-narrative" that theBucha massacre was perpetrated by Ukrainian national police rather than theRussian Armed Forces.[76]
In late 2023 and early 2024, Hedges gave lectures on theIsraeli–Palestinian War in theGaza Strip,[77][78] dedicated episodes of his showThe Chris Hedges Report to the topic, and appeared as a guest on theMark Steiner Show.[79] He believes that since Zionism's early days its goals were the possession of all of mandatory Palestine and the extermination of the Palestinian people. He states that the end game of Netanyahu's ruling coalition is to permanently destroy the idea of aState of Palestine, to be accomplished through acts ofgenocide andethnic cleansing. He cites the withholding of food, water, medicine, and the bombing of hospitals, during the war as examples of such acts. He states that Israel, with the rise to power of the ultranationalist Jewish-supremacist far-right, which he calls the heirs toMeir Kahane, as evidence of Israel having developed into a fully fascist, hate-filled,Jewish-supremacistapartheid state, will continue to pursue its transformation into an ethnoreligiously pure state with the expulsion of all Palestinians, includingIsraeli citizens of Palestinian ethnicity. Hedges criticized former U.S. President Biden's, the U.S. government's and the U.S. and European media "total support" for the Israeli narrative, including military support and voting down cease-fire proposals in theUnited Nations. He supports theBDS movement, ending aid to and sanctioning Israel. Hedges argued that Israel's genocide of Palestinians has "signed its own death sentence" with respect to its "social capital", losing its "facade of civility, its supposed vaunted respect for rule of law and democracy, its mythical story of the courageous Israeli military and miraculous birth of the Jewish nation will lie in ash heaps".[78]
On September 20, 2014, a day before thePeople's Climate March, Hedges joinedBernie Sanders,Naomi Klein,Bill McKibben, andKshama Sawant on a panel moderated by WNYC'sBrian Lehrer to discuss the issue of climate change.[80]
Hedges has argued that the impact ofpopulation growth must be addressed, saying "all measures to thwart the degradation and destruction of our ecosystem will be useless if we do not cut population growth."[81]
Hedges appeared as a guest on an October 2011 episode of theCBC News Network'sLang and O'Leary Exchange to discuss his support for theOccupy Wall Street protests; co-hostKevin O'Leary criticized him, saying that he sounded "like a left-wing nutbar". Hedges said "it will be the last time" he appears on the show, and compared the CBC toFox News.[82] CBC's ombudsman found O'Leary's heated remarks to be a violation of the public broadcaster's journalistic standards.[83]
On November 3, 2011, Hedges was arrested with others in New York City as part of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, during which the activists staged a "people's hearing"[84] on the activities of the investment bankGoldman Sachs and blocked the entrance to their corporate headquarters.[85][86]
In 2012, after theObama administration signed theNational Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Hedges sued members of the US government, asserting that Section 1021 of the law unconstitutionally allowed presidential authority for indefinite detention withouthabeas corpus. He was later joined in the suit,Hedges v. Obama, by activists includingNoam Chomsky andDaniel Ellsberg. In May 2012 JudgeKatherine B. Forrest of the Southern District of New York ruled that the counter-terrorism provision of the NDAA is unconstitutional.[87]
The Obama administration appealed the decision, and it was overturned in July 2013 by theSecond Circuit Court of Appeals. Hedges petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case,[88] but the Supreme Court deniedcertiorari in April 2014.[89][90]
Hedges was previously a plaintiff inClapper v. Amnesty International.[91]
Chris Hedges reported in his The Chris Hedges Report website in March 2024, "In May 2013 I resigned fromPEN America over the appointment of formerState Department officialSuzanne Nossel. A decade later, PEN America has become a propaganda arm of the state."
Hedges is married to the Canadian actress, writer, and vegan activist Eunice Wong.[92][93] The couple have two children. He also has two children from a previous marriage. Hedges lived inPrinceton,New Jersey as of December 2014.[94] In November 2014, Hedges announced that he and his family had becomevegan. He compared his decision to a vow ofabstinence, adding that it is necessary "to make radical changes to save ourselves from ecological meltdown."[95] Hedges authored an introduction to a vegan cookbook in 2015,The Anarchist Cookbook, written byKeith McHenry and Chaz Bufe.[96]
Hedges haspost-traumatic stress disorder from his experience reporting in war zones.[5][97] Hedges speaksLevantine Arabic,Koine Greek,French, andSpanish in addition to his nativeEnglish.[31]
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)How a fake general, a pliant media, and a master manipulator helped lead the United States into war.
As a socialist I am not concerned with what is expedient or what is popular. I am concerned with what is right and just.
I'm not a Marxist, in that—I don't like labels—but I'm probably an anarchist.
Anarchist; that's the anarchist in me.
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