What is Netflix's Cover-Up (2025) all about?

Nothing stays under the radar when a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, starts investigating a story. During the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, he uncovered shocking and violent events that powerful people tried hard to keep secret, but his reports exposed the harsh truth and forced the world to pay attention. Netflix's Cover-Up is based on Seymour’s 50-year reporting journey, depicted through a documentary film releasing on December 19, 2025. 

Directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, Seymour Hersh is at the centre of the documentary, whose handwritten notes, official documents, and exclusive footage show how he exposed serious wrongdoing by the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. The title Cover-Up refers to how governments often try to hide the truth, and how Hersh spent his career exposing those lies. 

What “Cover-Up” did Seymour Hersh expose in his investigation? 

The documentary highlights three major events from Seymour Hersh’s career. These include his role in exposing the Watergate scandal, revealing the horrific My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, and uncovering the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib during the Iraq War.

In the trailer, he is even accused of being a “communist agent,” shown through old news reports criticizing him for targeting powerful people in the U.S. government. The aim of the documentary is not only to bring these stories back into the spotlight but also to inspire today’s investigative journalists, highlighting the power of journalism and how strong evidence and careful reporting can hold even the most powerful people accountable.  

Poitras has been wanting to make it for over two decades, and now she finally feels “grateful” that Sy finally relented, she told Tudum. “It is an honor to introduce younger generations — particularly young journalists — to Sy’s outsider muckraking reporting,” she added. 

His rise in the world of journalism began when he broke a story about an Army lieutenant accused of killing around 109 Vietnamese civilians, exposing one of the darkest actions by a government agency. In the trailer, he even said that powerful people will do anything to stay in power, even burying lies, stories, or people if needed.  

According to reports by Deadline, Hersh broke the My Lai massacre story and revealed that it wasn’t just the soldiers’ fault; the responsibility went up the “chain of command.” Poitras told (via Deadline), 

“In the instance of something like My Lai, he was horrified by the massacre but didn’t want to pin it just on the soldiers. He looked at the chain of command and exposed the chain of command.’’ 

At Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, U.S. soldiers allegedly tortured and abused prisoners. Photos were leaked, but Hersh’s reporting showed how these abuses were linked to military policies and leadership decisions, not just a few soldiers acting alone. Poitras said Hersh keeps returning to these stories because of injustice:

“I think that’s why he’s continually obsessed by going back to these stories because of these cycles of impunity… It drives Sy and is a source of profound moral outrage.”

After finishing its limited theatrical run on December 19, the film will be available to stream on Netflix starting December 26, 2025.