*Editor-at-Large Mishal Husain for Bloomberg News*
The killing of two American citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, little more than two weeks apart, has made January a dark month for many across the United States. Officials in the Trump administration were quick to accuse both victims of impeding law enforcement, even referring to them as “domestic terrorists.” It’s a label that filmmaker Laura Poitras finds chilling.
Poitras has been producing and directing documentaries for more than 20 years, winning both an Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize for work relating to whistleblower Edward Snowden and mass surveillance. She has her own experience of being regarded as a threat by the US government, and spent time on a terrorist watch list.
Her work has long trained an unflinching lens on the American state. It’s little surprise, then, that Poitras’s latest film profiles Seymour Hersh, an investigative journalist whose career has been defined by exposing abuse and official deception. Cover-Up, co-directed with Mark Obenhaus and now on Netflix, traces Hersh’s life from his roots on the South Side of Chicago, through his scoops of the 1960s to his current journalism on Substack, and was nominated this week for a BAFTA award. In our conversation, Poitras also reflects on the role of citizen journalism in places like Minneapolis.
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*Editor-at-Large Mishal Husain for Bloomberg News*
The killing of two American citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, little more than two weeks apart, has made January a dark month for many across the United States. Officials in the Trump administration were quick to accuse both victims of impeding law enforcement, even referring to them as “domestic terrorists.” It’s a label that filmmaker Laura Poitras finds chilling.
Poitras has been producing and directing documentaries for more than 20 years, winning both an Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize for work relating to whistleblower Edward Snowden and mass surveillance. She has her own experience of being regarded as a threat by the US government, and spent time on a terrorist watch list.
Her work has long trained an unflinching lens on the American state. It’s little surprise, then, that Poitras’s latest film profiles Seymour Hersh, an investigative journalist whose career has been defined by exposing abuse and official deception. Cover-Up, co-directed with Mark Obenhaus and now on Netflix, traces Hersh’s life from his roots on the South Side of Chicago, through his scoops of the 1960s to his current journalism on Substack, and was nominated this week for a BAFTA award. In our conversation, Poitras also reflects on the role of citizen journalism in places like Minneapolis.
[Read the full interview here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-laura-poitras-weekend-interview/?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2OTk1NTg4MywiZXhwIjoxNzcwNTYwNjgzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUOU5ZMFVLR1pBSkUwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.IL11kU0LRNNT4K29eYLhu4cxQ5WHS2L4U3dgbK1kBCo) You can also [listen to this interview](https://omny.fm/shows/the-mishal-husain-show/netflix-s-cover-up-director-laura-poitras-on-ice-domestic-terrorists-and-us-surveillance) and follow The Mishal Husain Show on [iHeart Podcasts](https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-mishal-husain-show-300204707/), [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mishal-husain-show/id1845840408), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/4cJNIDbIEyNyaS7EWVh5Hh) or wherever you get your podcasts.