Big Media's Guilt in Gary Webb's Death
By Robert Parry (A Special Report)
December 9, 2010
It’s been six years since I received the shocking news that journalist Gary Webb had committed suicide with his father’s pistol.
In the days after his Dec. 9, 2004, death, I was told that he had succumbed to a deep depression brought on by being blacklisted from his profession for a courageous series that he had written about the real-life consequences of a U.S. foreign policy that put Cold War priorities ahead of protecting Americans from the international drug trade.
Instead of rallying to his side when his series appeared in 1996, prominent news organizations – including The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times – had chosen to protect the legacy of Ronald Reagan and to cover up for their own failures in the 1980s to investigate the cocaine trafficking by Reagan’s beloved Nicaraguan contra rebels.
But the ostracism of Gary Webb was part of a larger back story. It was a prelude to the massive journalism failures of the past decade when many of the same newspapers joined the stampede for George W. Bush’s wars, instead of showing professionalism and skepticism.
More:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/120910.html