", Many of these are in the series archive at. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" And the importance of exposing them. Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns? Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint OConnor had a solid featurethe other day about Kill the Messenger, the journalism true-tale movie opening Friday with Jeremy Renner starring as the late Gary Webb. Both sides were left angry and disappointed. "He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. Jack Blum, who was the lead investigator for Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, which produced a highly damning 1989 report on drug-smuggling in the guise of national security, is one of several commentators to have questioned aspects of Webb's original reporting. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. 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. "He rang me up that day. Leen, who covered the cocaine trade for the Miami Herald in the 1980s, rejects the claim that "because the report uncovered an agency mindset of indifference to drug-smuggling allegations", it vindicated Webb's reporting. Webb, Gary Gary T. Webb, age 67, of Hamilton, Michigan, passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family Thursday, November 11, 2021. I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". 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. By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. He is from United States. His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." color: #ddd; Why Journalist Gary Webb Died - LewRockwell [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. Much of the article highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to successfully prosecute them and stated that this was largely due to their Contra and CIA connections. "[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. 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? He really did believe that," she says. [26] Other papers were slow to pick up the story, but African Americans quickly took note, especially in South Central Los Angeles where the dealers discussed in the series had been active. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. That was just the way he was.". ", The significant legacy of the Webb case, "the reason this whole affair remains so significant today," Blum says, "is this: the knowledge that, if one individual dares raise such serious issues, they risk confronting a tremendous apparatus that is prepared to whack them hard, and there is very little they can expect by way of support. Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. Susan Bell: a shameful secret history - The Independent Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. 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. [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. But the report was correct. 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. In interviews after leaving The Mercury News, Webb described the 1997 controversy as media manipulation. .article-native-ad strong { When Webb pressed the Mercury News to allow him to investigate the LA connection further, his own newspaper issued a retraction which earned its editor, Jerry Ceppos, wide praise from rival publications, but effectively disowned Webb, who then suffered the kind of corporate lynching that reporters are usually expected to dispense rather than endure. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. font-weight:500; [4] When Webb's father retired from the Marines, the family settled in a suburb of Indianapolis, where Webb and his brother attended high school. 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. The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. [59], The first volume of the report found no evidence that "any past or present employee of CIA, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, had any direct or indirect dealing" with Ross, Blandn, or Meneses or that any of the other figures mentioned in "Dark Alliance" were ever employed by or associated with or contacted by the agency. Gary Webb Obituary (2011) - Saginaw, MI - Saginaw News on MLive.com Kill the Messenger True Story vs. Movie - Real Gary Webb Film of this encounter survives. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. He is the oldest son of Pulitzer Prize-winninginvestigative journalist Gary Webb, the subject of the 2014 film "Kill the Messenger," starring Hollywood heavyweight Jeremy Renner. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. 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. 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. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. 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." 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. It reads: "There should be no fetters on reporters, nor must they tamper with the truth, but give light so the people will find their own way." Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. Ricky Ross (drug trafficker) - Wikipedia Gary Webb | Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune Gary Webb Resigns from the San Jose Mercury News Gary Webb Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. Gary Webb Obituary (1944 - 2022) - Portland, OR - The Oregonian [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. Webb may indeed be physically dead, but his research is more alive today than ever before, and continues to haunt the shadow government and snowball into a monster that will undoubtedly have its eventual revenge. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. "[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." So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. When removal men arrived, on the morning of 10 December 2004, they found a sign on his front door, which read: ''Please do not enter. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? . After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. 'Dark Alliance' - both as journalism and as a book - is a convoluted narrative, but the crucial link it establishes is between the "agricultural salesman" Oscar Danilo Blandn, a Contra sympathiser with close CIA links, and his best customer, an LA drug dealer known as "Freeway" Ricky Ross. [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. [65], After leaving The Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? In February last year he was laid off by the State Legislature. Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. OR was he like Epstein 71K views 8 years ago Gary Webb's son Ian talks about the film in which Jeremy Renner plays his late journalist father. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. [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. At that time, Webb (pictured) was best known for the controversial three-part CIA 1996 expose he wrote the San Jose Mercury News called "Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the . Gary Webb was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California, USA. The first detailed article on the series's claims appeared in The Washington Post in early October. In 2004, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb was found dead from an apparent suicide, as Democracy Now! "[74] Mary Anne Sharkey, Webb's editor at The Plain Dealer, told writer Alicia Shepard in 1997 that Webb was known as 'the carpenter' "because he had everything nailed down. 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. Gary Webb: Murdered For Exposing The Truth - A New Kind Of Human 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." American racer Cooper Webb is married to his wife named Mariah Williams Webb. "You do not understand the power of these people," he adds, referring to the US intelligence services. Obituary | GARY HAYS WEBB of Neenah, Wisconsin | WESTGOR FUNERAL HOMES Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? Gary Webb's Death Confirmed as Suicide | Editor and Publisher Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post. Sheriff: Fatal Blue Grass house fire rule 'undetermined, but accidental' 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. 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 . Eighteen Years Ago Today, Journalist Gary Webb Was Murdered After On one road trip, in 2001, he came off the motorcycle and split his helmet open. The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. [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." Voices: The Gary Webb saga still has lessons today "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles.
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