Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. Gary Webb Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. It found that CIA officials ignored information about possible Contra drug dealing; that they continued to work with Contra supporters despite allegations that they were trafficking drugs, and further asserted that officials from the CIA instructed Drug Enforcement Agency officers to refrain from investigating alleged dealers connected with the Contras. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. Eighteen Years Ago Today, Journalist Gary Webb Was Murdered After According to the report, the Inspector-General's office (OIG) examined all information the agency had "relating to CIA knowledge of drug trafficking allegations in regard to any person directly or indirectly involved in Contra activities." He was taken to hospital by air ambulance. When his body was found, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was on the DVD machine, and his favourite CD, Ian Hunter's live album Welcome to the Club, was in the CD player. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. .article-native-ad svg { Last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, "To readers of our 'Dark Alliance' series", "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war", "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans", "Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Inquiry Findings", "The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Alleged Plot", "Though Evidence Is Thin, Tale of C.I.A. Five years ago, a tragedy occurred in American journalism: Investigative reporter Gary Webb - who had been ostracized by his own colleagues for forcing a spotlight back onto an ugly government scandal they wanted to ignore - was driven to commit suicide. How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career "I'd get discouraged," she said, "but I never really gave up hope." Back in 1997, SN&R brought the controversy about Gary Webb to readers with "Secrets and Lies," a cover story about why the mainstream media attacked . "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. The link between drug-running and the Reagan regime's support for the right-wing terrorist group throughout the 1980s had been public knowledge for over a decade. Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. A time of fellowship and remembrance is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at Lake Ridge Chapel and Memorial Designers. "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. Her husband began his career on The Kentucky Post, and rapidly proved himself to be the sort of character who can be a secretive agency's worst nightmare: a full-blooded provocateur who liked to put the hours in at the library. She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. [42] The extent of the criticism, however, convinced Ceppos that The Mercury News had to acknowledge to its readers that the series had been subjected to strong criticism. An editorial in the Times, while criticizing the series for making "unsubstantiated charges", conceded that it did find "drug-smuggling and dealing by Nicaraguans with at least tentative connections to the Contras" and called for further investigation. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". Susan Bell: a shameful secret history - The Independent His death was especially traumatic to the family since - as the coroner said - it could not be established whether he died instantly, or bled to death. Webb's ex-wife, Sue Bell, discounted theories Tuesday that her husband had been murdered, saying the 49-year-old Webb had been distraught for some time over his inability to get . He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. The first detailed article on the series's claims appeared in The Washington Post in early October. Like the CIA and Justice Department reports, it also found that neither Blandn, Meneses, nor Ross were associated with the CIA. In February last year he was laid off by the State Legislature. By the end of September, three federal investigations had been announced: an investigation into the CIA allegations conducted by CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, an investigation into the law enforcement allegations by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, and a second investigation into the CIA by the House Intelligence Committee. "He walked in one day," Bell recalls, "and said, 'You are not going to believe what I just found out.' It noted that Blandn and Meneses claimed to have donated money to Contra sympathizers in Los Angeles, but found no information to confirm that it was true or that the agency had heard of it. ". Call 911 for assistance. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. American Journalism Review - Archives The third article, by Mitchell and Fulwood, covered the effects of crack on African-Americans and how it affected their reaction to some of the rumors that arose after the "Dark Alliance" series. One of these was a 1986 raid on Blandn's drug organization by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which the article suggested had produced evidence of CIA ties to drug smuggling that was later suppressed. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. The attack on Gary Webb and his series in the San Jose Mercury News remains one of the most venomous and factually inane assaults on a professional journalist's competence in living memory . She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. A jury awarded the plaintiffs over 13 million dollars and the case was later settled. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere - Adweek The feeling was that with other news outlets calling for Webb's head, the paper's credibility depended on their joining in on the attacks. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. Dark Alliance - Dark Alliance Dec. 13, 2004. Although it did find that both men were major drug dealers, "guilty of enriching themselves at the expense of countless drug users," and that they had contributed money to the Contra cause, "we did not find that their activities were responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in South Central Los Angeles, much less the rise of crack throughout the nation, or that they were a significant source of support for the Contras. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. Gary E. Webb, a dedicated husband, dad, pappy, coach, mentor, teacher, supporter, hero, and best friend, was called home by the Lord while surrounded by family. According to a description of Webb's injuries in the Los Angeles Times, he shot himself with a .38 revolver, which he placed near his right ear. margin-bottom: 20px; Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. Tiffany L Gary-Webb | School of Public Health [22], The lede of the first article set out the series' basic claims: "For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. In the six years he worked at its Sacramento office, he won the HL Mencken award, for a story exposing corruption in California's drug enforcement agency, and his Pulitzer prize - won jointly, as part of a Mercury News team covering the 1990 Loma Prieta earthquake. Garcia is deputy director of the John S Knight Fellowships in Journalism at Stanford University. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. I mean - please.". It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. [35] The second article, by McManus, was the longest of the series and dealt with the role of the Contras in the drug trade and CIA knowledge of drug activities by the Contras. By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica "Ross," his report went on, dealt "on a scale never before conceived," with "a staggering turnover" of "50 to 100 kilos of cocaine a day". The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. Gary Webb's Death Confirmed as Suicide | Editor and Publisher Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere By Richard Horgan October 8, 2014 Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor had a solid feature the other day about Kill the. The article discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. "[79], Writing after Webb's death in 2005, The Nation magazine's former Washington Editor David Corn said that Webb "was on to something but botched part of how he handled it." Steven Webb . When I first heard the news, I tell Bell, I was inclined to believe the conspiracy theories that still proliferate on the internet, suggesting that Webb had been assassinated - either by one of the drug dealers he'd met while writing Dark Alliance, or by the intelligence services who were supposed to police them. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. "He definitely was depressed. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. Gary Webb, (born August 31, 1955, Corona, California, U.S.died December 10, 2004, Carmichael, California), American investigative journalist who wrote a three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 on connections between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S.-backed Contra army seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's leftist font-weight:500; Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. Can these things possibly be?

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