Report becomes elephant in the room

'Rules have changed'

Ames' co-host Gary Brecher added, "The mainstream media, they have decided on their own that we are at war, and by 'we', that means the Acela corridor, the expensive suburbs of the East Coast … and that means the rules (of journalism) have changed."

George Beebe, a former CIA analyst and director of grand strategy at the Quincy Institute, which runs the Responsible Statecraft website, said, "If the US engaged in what many would regard as an act of war, destroying the critical infrastructure of a NATO ally, without notifying Congress, that raises profound issues of executive-legislative relations and intra-alliance management, let alone what it might mean for the possibility of Russian retaliation on American infrastructure."

Hersh also said that he believes Russia will prevail in the conflict with Ukraine.

"It's a question of how many more people (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky wants to kill of his own people. It's going to be over.

"I don't think there's any chance that Putin wants to take over Europe," he added. "He wants to have Ukraine tamed. But he's not interested in doing anything more. I may be in a minority about that."

Reuters contributed to this story.