Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. 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. Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. He wrote well. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. The story they printed was just awful. Emma Lee Webb. She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. "Do not quote me. It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. When he was engaged, he worked hard. 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. font-weight:500; "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. Webb chose the second option. "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. 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. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). After his resignation from The Mercury News, Webb expanded the "Dark Alliance" series into a book that responded to the criticism of the series and described his experiences writing the story and dealing with the controversy. Parry, the first reporter to write about the US authorities' drug-running on behalf of the Contras, had survived a campaign by the White House to discredit first his story, then his reputation. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. "He rang me up that day. 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 . Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. .article-native-ad strong { "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. We had been here before." Gary Stephen Webb was a Pulitzer prize winning American investigative reporter who exposed cocaine trafficking by the CIA.He wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, which initially backed his articles but later dropped him.Webb was put under pressure most certainly from the CIA under John Deutch for his reporting. [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. Gary Webb, 49, Journalist Who Wrote Disputed Articles, Is Dead In May 1997, after an internal review, Ceppos stated that, although the story was right on many important points, there were shortcomings in the writing, editing and production of the series. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" 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. It found that Blandn received permanent resident status "in a wholly improper manner" and that for some time the Department "was not certain whether to prosecute Meneses, or use him as a cooperating witness." It was accurate. 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. Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. 1) It presented only one interpretation of conflicting evidence and in one case "did not include information that contradicted a central assertion of the series." He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' Film of this encounter survives. It's . According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." "Although Ross had become a millionaire by 1984," Katz now wrote, "the market was so huge by then that even a dealer of his stature could seem dwarfed How the crack epidemic reached that extreme, on some level," he continues, "had nothing to do with Ross". Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. She acted opposite Dirk Bogarde in the groundbreaking film Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961), as the unsuspecting wife of a barrister who is a closet homosexual. Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Melinda Welsh September 29, 2014 This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed-up Hollywood. If you work through friendly reporters on major newspapers, it comes off as The New York Times saying it and not a mouthpiece of the CIA. Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? But the report was correct. [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. "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 claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. Webb 'Suicide' Looking More Like Murder - rense.com While police were preparing the case against her boyfriend, Baca alleged, officers had disclosed documents which revealed that one of her lover's associates had been working for the Contras. (Strawser) Webb. line-height:1.5; 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. His career ended, his livelihood was destroyed and certain games were started to be . By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. Gary Webb famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and his death that was ruled a suicide, is the common sense notion that this was clearly assassination true? Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. color:rgb(46,179,178); Gary Webb: More Pieces In The Suicided Puzzle - Pt 1 - Rense I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. that the "federal government bore some responsibility, however indirect, for the flood of crack that coursed through black neighborhoods in the 1980s"). But "Dark Alliance" was also posted on the Mercury News's website, with the image of a crack smoker superimposed on the CIA badge. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. His own paper, the Mercury News, criticized the series in 1997 without providing many specifics. Gary Webb Was Right | HuffPost Latest News [16] As part of The Mercury News team that covered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Webb and his colleague Pete Carey wrote a story examining the causes of the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct. The story had little immediate impact. [50] By January, Webb filed drafts of four more articles based on his trip, but his editors concluded that the new articles would not help shore up the original series's claims. The series revolves around the first crack epidemic and its impact on the culture of the city. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. [48] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. 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. The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case. Webb's pieces were not dealing with nameless peasants slaughtered in some distant republic, but demonstrated a clear link between the CIA and the suppliers of the gangs delivering crack to the ghetto of Watts, in South Central Los Angeles. The film broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of . By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. Family and friends will gather to celebrate his life of 59 years at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 7, 2019, at Lamesa Continue Reading Leave a Message, Share a Memory Both sides were left angry and disappointed. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. But you say - dear God. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. Webb was born in Corona, California. The Man Who Exposed The Crips, Bloods & CIA Connection to - YouTube Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. Webb, a Pullitzer prize winning journalist, exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in a series of books and reports for the San Jose Mercury News. Gary Webb Obituary (2009) - Elgin, IL - Elgin Courier News - Legacy.com "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. I have also followed up on key topics raised by Paul Cottrell will leading industry experts like Dr. Peter McCollough on the Tommy Carrigan Show, weekly in 2021 and 2022. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. Steven Webb . If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. Webb, whose plans to become a journalist had begun when he was 13, but never included equine death notices, resigned from the Mercury News a few months later. Evidence Begins To Indicate Gary Webb Was Murdered - BSNEWS Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. 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. The legendary civil-rights activist Dick Gregory was arrested while he protested outside the CIA's headquarters; Gregory began referring to the organisation as "Crack in America". There were no offers. I felt she really trashed me. Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. He really did believe that," she says. Investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories in 1996 for the San Jose Mercury News that documented the US-government-backed Contra insurgents' drug pipeline into Los Angeles. padding-bottom: 20px; One instalment of the LA Times's 18,000-word rebuttal of Webb's piece, published in October 1996, sought to minimise the importance of his key witness, Ricky Ross. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. Going to the CIA to ask if they've ever profited from drug sales in Los Angeles, I suggested to Kornbluh, is rather like asking Fagin if he has ever picked a pocket. The CIA Inspector General's report, commissioned in response to the allegations in "Dark Alliance", was published in the autumn of 1998. in Central America", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Webb&oldid=1138520387, This page was last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36. [28] Maxine Waters, the representative for California's 35th district, which includes South-Central Los Angeles, was also outraged by the articles and became one of Webb's strongest supporters. 71K views 8 years ago Gary Webb's son Ian talks about the film in which Jeremy Renner plays his late journalist father. When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. 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. "[64] Webb's longest response to the controversy was in "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On," a chapter he contributed to an anthology of press criticism: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? Gary Webb - Biography - IMDb The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. Jeff Leen, assistant managing editor for investigative reporting at The Washington Post, wrote in a 2014 opinion page article that "the report found no CIA relationship with the drug ring Webb had written about." They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. 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. Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants.
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