In an interview with The Incercept, prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh called the way the media went along with the 'Russia hacked the 2016 election' story "outrageous."



"The real story was the extent to which the White House was going with this story," he said. "Permitting the [Central Intelligence] agency to go public with assessments. What does an assessment mean?"



"At one time they said 17 agencies agreed. Oh yeah? The Coast Guard? The Airforce? They all agreed? It was outrageous," he said.





SEYMOUR HERSH: My view of the way the major media showed the Russian thing and the hacking is, they were hectoring, they were just using it to hector, they didn't do reporting. And the real story was the extent to which the White House was going with this story, and permitting this kind of stuff to go -- permitting the agency to go public with assessments --



What does an assessment mean? It is not a National Intelligence Estimate. If you had a real estimate, you would have had 5 or 6 dissents. People saying -- I can tell you right now. At one time they said 17 agencies agreed. Oh yeah? The Coast Guard? The Airforce? They all agreed? It was outrageous.

You can listen to a podcast of Jeremy Scahill's full interview with Seymour Hersh at The Intercept