Gary Webb and 'Kill the Messenger': Reporter played by - cleveland He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." He was born August 27, 1968 in Saginaw, Michigan to Taylor Jr. and Loretta Webb. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. Dr. Gary A. Webb, MD | Marco Island, FL | Geriatrician | US News Doctors In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. [39] The Post refused to print his letter. Gary Webb was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California, USA. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. [60], It found nothing to support the claim that "the drug trafficking activities of Blandn and Meneses were motivated by any commitment to support the Contra cause or Contra activities undertaken by CIA." This support "was not directed by anyone within the Contra movement who had an association with the CIA," and the Committee found "no evidence that the CIA or the Intelligence Community was aware of these individuals support. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career There has been speculation that he may have met with foul play because he had received two gunshot wounds to the head, The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. "[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." 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. "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. [31] In their front-page article, reporters Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus wrote that "available information" did not support the series's claims and that "the rise of crack" was "a broad-based phenomenon" driven in numerous places by diverse players. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. He was born June 18, 1943, in Appleton, son of the late Wilford and Helen (Hauskey) Webb. Steven Webb . Blandn and Meneses' high-volume supply of low-priced high-purity cocaine "allowed Ross to sew up the Los Angeles market and move on. Gary Webb on the CIA's Role in the 1980s LA Crack Epidemic - Citizen Truth The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica E&P Staff. Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. When he was engaged, he worked hard. Shortly before I left for Sacramento, Moreira, who knew Webb, had shown me unbroadcast footage which shows the French reporter making a phone call to a media commentator in the US, asking him about Webb's death. Gary Webb Was Right | HuffPost Latest News Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. "To get back at his editors?". A 1985 series, "Doctoring the Truth," uncovered problems in the State Medical Board[12] and led to an Ohio House investigation which resulted in major revisions to the state Medical Practice Act. Gary Webb's Death Confirmed as Suicide | Editor and Publisher Gary Webb Obituary (2009) - Elgin, IL - Elgin Courier News - Legacy.com Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. But they underestimated the paradigm shifting power of the internet, and the intelligence of Webb, who not only listed the explosive story online . When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021 Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie. Dec. 13, 2004. The other article, citing interviews with current and former intelligence and law-enforcement officials, questioned the importance of the drug dealers discussed in the series, both in the crack cocaine trade and in supporting the Nicaraguan Contras' fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. [51], The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. . Army. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. margin-bottom: 20px; 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. [9], Webb's first major investigative work appeared in 1980, when the Cincinnati Post published "The Coal Connection," a seventeen-part series by Webb and Post reporter Thomas Scheffey. "The cause of death was determined to be self . WEBB, Mr. Gary Lee, our beloved son, husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle went home with his heavenly Father Monday, August 29, 2011 at University of Michigan Hospital. The Warning in Gary Webb's Death - Consortium News In a three-part expos, investigative journalist Gary Webb reported that a guerrilla army in Nicaragua had used crack cocaine sales in Los Angeles' black neighborhoods to fund an attempted coup of Nicaragua's socialist government in the 1980s and that the CIA had purposefully funded it. To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. Why bring up old white people atrocities against black people now? On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. Man Donates Liver To Ex-Wife - CBS News Gary Webb - Biography - IMDb The story they printed was just awful. 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. [62], Examining the support that Meneses and Blandn gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of "millions," contrary to the claims of the "Dark Alliance" series. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. "He definitely was depressed. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). "Do not quote me. "For the better part of a decade," it began, "a San Francisco drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funnelled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the US Central Intelligence Agency.". "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. He is from United States. Gary Webb Resigns from the San Jose Mercury News But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb He crashed and shredded his clothes, face and body on a barbed-wire fence." Both Gary's ex-wife Susan and his brother Kurt viewed the body and they confirmed the location of the wounds to me when I met them. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. [10] The series, which examined the murder of a coal company president with ties to organized crime, won the national Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for reporting from a small newspaper. "[55] In June 1997, The Mercury News told Webb it was transferring him from the paper's Sacramento bureau and offered him a choice between working at the main offices in San Jose under closer editorial supervision, or spot reporting in Cupertino; both locations were long commutes from his home in Sacramento. The room is decorated with his trophies: a Pulitzer prize hangs next to his HL Mencken award; also on the wall is a framed advertisement for The Kentucky Post. Its pointed to as one of the clearer cases of CIA intervention as revenge for Webb revealing damaging secrets about the agencies involvement in drug smuggling. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. [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. Ricky Donnell "Freeway Rick" Ross (born January 26, 1960) is an American author and convicted drug trafficker best known for the drug empire he established in Los Angeles, California, in the early to mid 1980s. Gary Webb's painstaking investigation and the incindiary conclusions he drew from it were based mostly on public records, as detailed in the "notes on sources" section in "Dark Alliance", including: undercover audio tapes, declassified government documents from the CIA, DEA, FBI, L.A. Sheriff's Department, files from the Iran-Contra . The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to finance their fight against the government in Nicaragua. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. His assignments included investigating racial profiling by the California Highway Patrol and charges that the Oracle Corporation had received a no-bid contract award of $95 million in 2001. Two years later, he was promoted to Vice President of Knight Ridder, the Mercury News's parent company; he retired from this position last month. and Drugs Has a Life of Its Own", "Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players", "Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade", "Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales", "History Fuels Outrage Over Crack Allegations", "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks", "Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos' Letter to the Washington Post", "Washington Post response to Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos", "Despite critics, a good story Crack and the contras", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Epilogue", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Conclusions", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career? The response from the American press took two months to arrive. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 - Gary Webb, a reporter who won national attention with a series of articles, later discredited, linking the Central Intelligence Agency to the spread of crack . He was a former member of Bethlehem . Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. Can these things possibly be? [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. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. News coverage noted that there were widespread rumors on the Internet at the time that Webb had been killed as retribution for his "Dark Alliance" series, published eight years before. OR was he like Epstein? Chasing Corona - by George Webb When he was engaged, he worked hard. Tara Becker-Gray Lee News Network Jan 17, 2019 0 1 of 2 C. Webb The body found at a house fire at 13308 95th Ave. in rural Blue Grass on Thursday night has been identified as Cynthia Webb, 59.. Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. "[75], Jonathan Krim, The Mercury News editor who recruited Webb from The Plain Dealer and who supervised The Mercury News internal review of "Dark Alliance," told AJR editor Paterno that Webb "had all the qualities you'd want in a reporter: curious, dogged, a very high sense of wanting to expose wrongdoing and to hold private and public officials accountable." Do not quote me on anything.". Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide.