Robert Parry: Regret over Gary Webb’s Demise
from Consortium News:
Regret over Gary Webbs Demise
June 1, 2013
Exclusive: For several decades, mainstream U.S. journalists have fled from the career-threatening label liberal, even to the point of destroying honest colleagues who got in the crosshairs of the Right. The story of the late Gary Webb and his Contra-cocaine revelations was a troubling case in point, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
One of the Los Angeles Times reporters who joined in the orchestrated destruction of investigative journalist Gary Webbs career has acknowledged that the newspapers assault joined by the Washington Post and the New York Times was a tawdry exercise amounting to overkill, which later contributed to Webbs suicide.
This limited apology by former Los Angeles Times reporter Jesse Katz was made during a radio interview and comes as filming is about to start on Kill the Messenger, a movie about how, in 1996, Webb revived the scandal of the Reagan administrations protection of cocaine traffickers involved in the CIA-backed Contra war against Nicaraguas leftist Sandinista government.
Webbs investigative series for the San Jose Mercury News traced some of the Contra cocaine to one of the most important early manufacturers of crack in Los Angeles. His articles aroused anger toward the CIA especially from African-American communities which bore the brunt of crack-related violence in the 1980s. That pressure, in turn, forced the U.S. government to begin providing answers as to why sporadic media and congressional investigations into the Cocaine-cocaine issue in the 1980s had been met with such hostility.
In December 1985, my Associated Press colleague Brian Barger and I had been the first reporters to disclose the problem of many Contra units getting involved with the drug trade as a means of raising money. Our story prompted then-freshman Sen. John Kerry to conduct an investigation which turned up more evidence implicating the Contras. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/06/01/regret-over-gary-webbs-demise/
ellenfl
(8,660 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks
Jesse Katz admits that attacking journalist Gary Webb's CIA-cocaine expose ruined Webb's life
By Nick Schou Thursday, May 30 2013
<>
Webb was vindicated by a 1998 CIA Inspector General report, which revealed that for more than a decade the agency had covered up a business relationship it had with Nicaraguan drug dealers like Blandón.
The L.A. Times, New York Times and Washington Post buried the IG's report; under L.A. Times editor Michael Parks, the paper didn't acknowledge its release for months.
<>
Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Last edited Mon Jun 24, 2013, 03:28 AM - Edit history (1)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/berlin-jeremy-renners-gary-webb-420342http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/jeremy-renner-ready-to-kill-the-messenger-in-berlin-bound-film-package-about-cia-smeared-journo-gary-webb/
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/03/26/the-tragic-saga-of-gary-webb/
Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)mulsh
(2,959 posts)At least those of us who listened were able to hear multiple witnesses testify to "palletized bundles of $100.00 bills being exchanged for palletized bales of cocaine at US Air force base through out the southern United States." no one aside from Webb and a handful of other reporters seemed to think this was news worthy.