Well-known journalist Chris Hedges, whose talk scheduled to be delivered at the National Press Club was suddenly cancelled, was confronted by the ABC’s Late Night Live host David Marr in an unexpectedly ferocious interview. One reader took exception to this.

A repost from 31 October 2025

Dear David,

I am writing to you as a respected senior journalist to express my disappointment at the hatchet job interview you conducted with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges in the wake of the cancellation by the National Press Club of the invitation to him to speak there on Monday, 20 October.

I am disappointed because this interview was marred (no pun intended!) by what I consider an otherwise good record in consistently bringing the horrors being committed by Israel against the people of Gaza to the attention of your listeners.

You tried unsuccessfully to shake Chris from his assertion that the Western mainstream media have betrayed Palestinian journalists and amplified the Israeli narrative or hasbara. These journalists, incredibly brave professionals of Gaza, are the only source of news on the ground about the genocide being committed by the Israel Defence Force, supported materially and diplomatically by the US and its allies, including Australia.

This is because Israel refuses to allow other journalists........

© Pearls and Irritations