Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb

by Nick Schou

Now a major motion picture starring Jeremy Renner!

Kill the Messenger tells the story of the tragic death of Gary Webb, the controversial newspaper reporter who committed suicide in December 2004. Webb is the former San Jose Mercury News reporter whose 1996 "Dark Alliance" series on the so-called CIA-crack cocaine connection created a firestorm of controversy and led to his resignation from the paper amid escalating attacks on his work by the mainstream media. Author and investigative journalist Nick Schou published numerous articles on the controversy and was the only reporter to significantly advance Webb's stories.

Drawing on exhaustive research and highly personal interviews with Webb's family, colleagues, supporters and critics, this book argues convincingly that Webb's editors betrayed him, despite mounting evidence that his stories were correct. Kill the Messenger examines the "Dark Alliance" controversy, what it says about the current state of journalism in America, and how it led Webb to ultimately take his own life.

Webb's widow, Sue Bell Stokes, remains an ardent defender of her ex-husband. By combining her story with a probing examination of the one of the most important media scandals in recent memory, this book provides a gripping view of one of the greatest tragedies in the annals of investigative journalism.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Biography, True Crime, Crime, Drugs

233 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to be filled with rage at the mainstream media's shameless devotion to protecting the status quo, this is the book for you. Great stuff about the New York Times, L.A. Times, and Washington Post going after Gary Webb for daring to tie the CIA to coke-smuggling contras. The downward trajectory of Webb's life after his career was destroyed by the corporate press is heartbreaking.

This book is best read along with Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's excellent Whiteout, especially the chapters on the smear campaign against Webb. Schou is a serviceable writer, but Cockburn and St. Clair are brilliant stylists and are in peak form in this book.

[Cav · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I MET HIM in a bar in Sacramento in April, 1998. His series on the CIA was almost two years old, and officially repudiated by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post. He’d lost his job and no one in the news business would hire him. I remember he entered the hotel saloon with a kind of swagger. I remember that he ordered Maker’s Mark. And I remember idly mentioning conspiracy theories and that he instantly flared up and said, “I don’t believe in fucking conspiracy theories, I’m talking about a fucking conspiracy...”

Kill the Messenger was a well-done look into a scandalous episode in recent American history.

Author Nicholas Schou is the former Editor of OC Weekly, writer of several books, and an investigative reporter whose work has led to the release from prison of wrongfully convicted individuals as well as numerous corruption investigations including one that led to the prosecution and imprisonment of a California mayor.

Nicholas Schou :


Schou opens the book with a good intro; setting the pace for the rest of the writing to follow. He's got a lively style that I found to be both engaging and informative. This one shouldn't have trouble holding the finicky reader's attention.

Gary Webb was an investigative journalist who famously broke the story of the CIA's involvement in the crack cocaine epidemic that originated in the LA area in the early to mid-80s. A subject that's since made for rich conspiracy fodder, Gary Webb died in an apparent suicide; shot twice in the head. Schou says:

"WHILE IT WAS Gary Webb who pulled the trigger, the bullet that ended his life was a mere afterthought to the tragic unraveling of one of the most controversial and misunderstood journalists in recent American history. A college dropout with twenty years of reporting experience and a Pulitzer Prize on his resume, Webb broke the biggest story of his career in August 1996, when he published “Dark Alliance,” a three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News that linked the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to America’s crack-cocaine explosion.
Webb spent more than a year uncovering the shady connection between the CIA and drug trafficking through the agency’s relationship with the Nicaraguan contras, a right-wing army that aimed to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government during the 1980s. The Sandinistas were Marxist rebels who came to power in 1979 after the collapse of decades of U.S.- backed dictatorship at the hands of the Somoza family. President Reagan called the contras “freedom fighters” and compared them to America’s founding fathers. Even as Reagan uttered those words, the CIA was aware that the many of the contras’ supporters were deeply involved in cocaine smuggling, and were using the money to fund their army, or, as more often proved the case, to line their own pockets."

Reporting on the clandestine goings-on of America's most secretive intelligence organization is an inherently risky proposition. The author expands:

"...As this book will show, the controversy over “Dark Alliance” was the central event in Webb’s life, and the critical element in his eventual depression and suicide. His big story, despite major flaws of hyperbole abetted and even encouraged by his editors, remains one of the most important works of investigative journalism in recent American history. The connection Webb uncovered between the CIA, the contras and L.A.’s crack trade was real—and radioactive. Webb was hardly the first American journalist to lose his job after taking on the country’s most secretive government agency in print. Every serious reporter or politician that tried to unravel the connection between the CIA, the Nicaraguan contras and cocaine, had lived to regret it."

Webb's story would go on to explode, and high-ranking US politicians like Maxine Waters vowed to get to the bottom of it. There was a theory floating around that the CIA had purposely flooded the hood with crack as a covert form of genocide against American blacks. The author writes:

"Webb’s original draft highlighted the CIA’s involvement in the drug ring, but didn’t assert that the agency had conspired with Blandon or Meneses, but rather that it knew about their activities. In his 1998 book, Webb wrote that he “never believed, and never wrote, that there was a grand CIA conspiracy behind the crack plague. Indeed the more I learned about the agency, the more certain of that I became. The CIA couldn’t even mine a harbor without getting its trench coat stuck in its fly.”
Rather than a CIA conspiracy to flood the streets of South Central Los Angeles with crack, Webb stated in his book Dark Alliance that what transpired was “a horrible accident of history” abetted by bad timing. “The contras just happened to pick the worst possible time ever to begin peddling cheap cocaine in black neighborhoods—unbridled criminal stupidity, cloaked in a blanket of national security,” he wrote."

Sadly, Webb's story was met with mixed reviews, and his personal life was troubled. Schou drops this quote, which I'll cover with a spoiler:

"Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and The Crack Cocaine Explosion received mixed reviews in the mainstream press, but even critics acknowledged it was a much more nuanced and convincing, if vastly more complicated, work of journalism than his heavily-edited Mercury News series. Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, who had last written about Webb a year earlier when he was transferred to Cupertino—“the Mercury News has apparently had enough of reporter Gary Webb”— continued to heap scorn. “ ‘Dark Alliance’ is back,” he wrote ominously, adding that Webb had to settle for “a small [publishing] house” after receiving a “torrent of rejections.”
The book received no television coverage, with the exception of CSPAN, which invited Webb to answer phone calls from viewers, most of whom had little to say about Dark Alliance, and a lot to say about whatever they had read in the newspaper that morning. When one caller asked Webb what he thought of a story talking about a then-unknown Saudi dissident named Osama bin Laden, who had just declared war on the United States, Webb said it appeared bin Laden was angry because the U.S. had put troops on Saudi soil during the Persian Gulf war. “It sounds like just another example of our policies coming back to haunt us,” he said.
The Mercury News didn’t bother to review the book, the New York Times concluded that Webb still hadn’t done enough to verify his allegations with CIA insiders, while the LA Times dismissed it as “densely researched, passionately argued, [and] acronym-laden.” The Baltimore Sun gave a much more favorable review, and even the Washington Post grudgingly congratulated Webb for forcing the CIA to shed light on its “sleazy past.”
“That’s as close to an apology as Webb ever received” from the papers that had helped end his career, says publisher Dan Simon. But the accolades Webb received for his book from liberal fans didn’t provide him with much solace. “Gary went from being a hero of the establishment to being vilified by that club to being a hero of the American left,” he says. “Getting awards didn’t matter to Gary. He appreciated it but it didn’t comfort him at all, because they weren’t his people.”
Mixed reviews didn’t keep people from buying the book. According to publisher Dan Simon, Dark Alliance wasn’t a best seller, but enjoyed strong sales—which continue today, eight years later—thanks to Webb’s notoriety.
On his book tour, crowds filled bookstores from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York and Washington, D.C., as Webb traveled around the country giving speeches and signing autographs. With his newfound status as an exiled reporter, progressive audiences hailed Webb as a hero. Not all audiences were pleased with what he had to say, however. At the Midnight Special bookstore in Santa Monica, some members in the audience were shocked when Webb began his speech by explaining that he never believed the CIA had conspired to flood America’s inner cities with crack cocaine.
One serious-looking African-American woman interrupted his speech to announce that Webb had his facts wrong. “The police invented crack,” she said, her arms folded defiantly. “No, they didn’t,” Webb responded, looking down at his notes, struggling to regain his stream of thought. “What happened was this drug ring, which the CIA has now admitted it protected, arrived in South-Central at a particularly bad time, in 1982,” he said. “It hooked up with the gangs right when people in South-Central were learning how to turn powder cocaine into crack.”
“Don’t try to tell us that!” the woman responded, her voice rising in frustration. “The police invented that drug.” She then claimed that undercover police informants had broken into her house and fed her intravenous drugs “so they can turn me into another statistic.” Like former CIA Director John Deutch, who defended his agency to a similarly irate crowd in South Central shortly after Webb’s story appeared, Webb did his best to push through with his speech. But the more he talked, the angrier people got. It wasn’t necessarily that anyone disagreed with what Webb was saying. It was more the fact that many in the audience hadn’t arrived to hear Webb talk about the CIA, but to bury the spy agency with their own words.
“I think we all appreciate what you’ve done, but we just want you to tell the whole truth about the CIA,” one of the audience’s white members helpfully explained, stopping Webb’s speech to launch into a diatribe about the agency’s genocidal plot to wipe out black America. The audience began screaming and cheering in unison—not at the man’s remark, but because U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters had arrived just in time for the end of Webb’s speech. Waters strode straight up to the podium and embraced Webb. In a single hug, the rage of decades of distrust between African Americans and the CIA, which seemed ready to devour even Webb just moments earlier, mercifully subsided."

As for Webb's two gunshot suicide, the author says this:

"...She later discovered that Webb almost didn’t succeed in killing himself. When the first bullet pierced his cheek, it missed his brain, tearing only soft tissue. Webb pulled the trigger again. The second bullet barely nicked an artery, and Webb, who likely fell unconscious moments later, ultimately bled to death.
It was hardly the mark of a professional hit. Sue told the reporter she was certain her ex-husband had committed suicide. “The way he was acting, it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide,” she said, explaining that he had been “distraught for some time over his inability to get a job at another major newspaper.”

********************

I enjoyed this one. It was an interesting, succinct telling of a wild and tragic story. I would recommend it to anyone interested.
4 stars.

[Jerry Peace]

Our government that blithely and routinely operates illegally, and worse, immorally, while wallowing in the muck of "national security," our media establishment that arrogantly and self-righteously destroys a reporter's reputation and thus his journalistic future while eating the CIA's PR vomit and throwing it back up again as truth, paving the way for its ultimate lapdog experience of the Iraq invasion and occupation, and a Manichean reporter's own tainted yet admirable doggedness- all ingredients in Gary Webb's tragic yet never inevitable death. His search for the truth was messy and imperfect and stained by his own inadequacies, but at least he tried to uncover the truth rather than perpetuate the lies and brazenly deny that truth. If you still deify Ronald Reagan, read this. If you think the media is an investigative solid rather than a mere bought shadow or corporate blown piece of dust, read this.

[A. Redact · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very even-handed account of the assassination of Gary Webb's character by the New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times. Schou acknowledges the shortcomings of the Dark Alliance series as it was originally published, but ultimately finds that Webb's reporting was vindicated by the two internal CIA investigations prompted by his reportage. Schou firmly believes that Webb committed suicide, despite circumstantial evidence that points to a staged murder for political retribution. Webb was found shot in the head twice, a fact that, on its face, seems like one more example of the CIA staging a victim's suicide and then covering it up with cooperation from coroners, local law enforcement, etc. However, if the CIA did kill Webb, they really put in the work crafting a very compelling suicide narrative in the weeks and months leading up to Webb's death. Webb apparently prepared for his own cremation, put his house on the market, and spoke with more than one confidant about his increasingly powerful desire to kill himself. These things lead me to believe that Webb might actually be one of the only genuine cases of a suicide resulting from two gun shots to the head.

One detail that does give me pause is a story that his wife recalls about Gary being threatened after the publication of his story: "'He was told he'd be killed one day,' she says. The [unidentified] man [on the phone] had darkly suggested that it wouldn't happen anytime soon, perhaps not until five or ten years in the future, and it wouldn't be anything obvious. As an example, the man explained, one day Webb might be driving down a steep slope in the mountains and his brakes would fail." Not long before Webb died, he had several motorcycle accidents that Schou doesn't seem to connect to this earlier threat. Webb may also have been offered a chance to kill himself to avoid harm to his family. Or he may have been one of the extremely rare cases of a person shooting themselves in the head, not dying, picking up the gun and having the motor skills and mental wherewithal to shoot himself again. We will likely never know.

In either case, Schou clearly demonstrates that even if Webb did pull the trigger, the precipitating events that led to his death were intentional, malicious, and potentially connected to the CIA. The legacy newspapers that destroyed Webb's career and life attacked him viciously and without mercy. A likely combination of professional jealousy, gatekeeping, and undisclosed connections to the CIA lead Webb's critics to go to unusually extreme degrees to discredit his reporting and tarnish his personal and professional reputation.

Their attacks on his story continues to muddy the waters of his reporting to this day. What is undeniable is that Webb was correct that the CIA was aware of drug running by their assets connected to Nicaraguan and El Salvadorian paramilitary groups, they actively protected these assets from domestic law enforcement, and these decisions contributed to the crack epidemic in South Central LA. The more extreme and speculative claims (never actually espoused by Webb himself) that the CIA was intentionally creating and/or exacerbating the crack epidemic to destroy urban black communities is possible but not proven.

Really thinking about this claim though, it seems like it's not the kind of theory that can ever really be proven definitively. Did the CIA facilitate the Latin American drug trade in the US? Yes. Did that drug trade help to introduce literal tons of cocaine at exactly the right time to throw fuel on the fire of the crack epidemic? Yes. Was that one of the express purposes of the CIA coordination? Who could possibly answer this question? The CIA is a cellular organization made up of competing and sometimes contradictory sets of interests, beliefs, and long- and short-term goals. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that some elements within the CIA were happy with the bonus of further salting the earth that the Black Panthers and radical black nationalism sprung from. If elements within our government actively conspired to destroy these movements, would it help that goal to accelerate the Black Panther movement's splintering into increasingly violent street gangs organized around the sale of crack? Yes. Would it make it easier to arrest and kill the remaining members of these groups after they were assigned "gang affiliations" connected to the War on Drugs? Of course. There is no monolithic CIA in the same way that there is no monolithic United States government. There are different groups with different agendas, and some of the people involved with Iran-Contra may not have *thought* they were helping to destroy the black community. Others involved might have been aware of it and viewed it as a primary objective. In any case, they felt that the destruction they wrought (inadvertently or not) was worth the cost to support right wing death squads in Latin America. It would certainly be worse if the CIA was rooting for the destruction of black communities, but at the end of the day they play(ed) an important role in that destruction, however they happened to feel about it.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rate this about 3.5 stars. I thought the story was very interesting but there were so many players involved, some of the story was a little overwhelming/confusing. I also felt some parts were repetitive. I'm left not knowing how I feel about Webb or his reporting

[Curtis Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read

The book opened my eyes up to specifics about investigative reporting and he CIA's involvement in the drug trade. The book also helps depict the true nature of news reporting by large papers.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was part of a sale on audible and looked interesting. I hadn't followed this when it broke originally so I was kind of wondering what the deal was. Note that the book is primarily about the reporting of the story and reaction to. There is some about what was discovered, but it's not heavy with information about the CIA's activity. The book starts off a little melodramatic in its tone, but ends with some objective reflections on the events from many of the main players. Webb and his editors definitely over-played what they had in the original story, but the irresponsible reaction of the major papers was far worse than anything web did. One of the most disgusting things is that the when the CIA finally admitted that they knew about the contras supporting themselves with drug money, it was right as the Lewinsky story was breaking and so the contra-crack thing was ignored.

I know there's a movie of this now. I might watch it, but movies of this sort of book always leave out so much detail and play up the drama so much that they seem dishonest.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a five-star story in a four-star book, and the primary reason I say that is grammar. Maybe I'm being too picky, but there's simply too many missing prepositions and articles.

That being said, Gary Webb's story is one that deserves telling over and over in as many ways as possible -- for many reasons. This isn't the forum to talk about all those reasons. So, I'll simply say: read the book.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, quick read about Gary Webb and the shameful way his story was handled by our "watchdog" press, most notably the Washington Post, LA Times, and New York Times. All three of them seemed more concerned about carrying water for the Federal Government than actually looking into a story, as it turns out, that had plenty of precedence.

[Justin Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great read on journalist Gary Webb's life, career, downfall and suicide. An alarming amount of typos for a book about a journalist, written by a journalist. There were an extroridinary amount of quotes taken from Gary's own book "Dark Alliance" and I'm interested in reading that now and seeing the movie.

[Kristi Bumpus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, if not especially well-written. I am not sure author ever really made his case, but as someone working in journalism who well remembered the situation, l enjoyed reading more about Webb and what transpired.

[Josephine Burks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was inspired by the movie about Gary Webb to read this book. It details how the mainstream media collectively assassinated the credibility and character of Webb after his expose piece on the CIA and various Nicaragua drug cartels. I'm definitely going to read Webb's book "Dark Alliance".

[Reet · Rating 4 out of 5]

P.97
Gary Webb, commenting on the CIA's selling crack cocaine to raise $ to pay for arms for the contrast in El Salvador:
" 'I became convinced that the whole war on drugs, 50 years from now, we're going to look back on it like we look back on the McCarthy era, and say, "how the f*** did we ever let this stuff get so out of hand?" ' Webb told author Charles Bowden in 1998. 'How come nobody stood up and said this is b*******?' "

P.143
Alexander Cockburn, author, speaking of MSM's attack on Webb's story, thus covering up for the CIA and Reagan:
" 'I've never taken the view that the mainstream press in the u.s. is to be redeemed,' Cockburn says. 'The rhetorical pose is always that the New York Times could be doing a better job and so could The Washington Post and then we would have a responsible press. My view is that the official corporate press is there to do a bad job. That's its function and nobody should be surprised. The miracle is that the Mercury news was asleep at the wheel and didn't realize what Webb was doing--and printed his story.' " [Referring to the sloppy editing on his story that allowed it to be attacked.]

P.168:
The CIA went through the motions of an "investigation" into drug trafficking by its agents.
"Former CIA officer Duane R. Clarridge, who ran the agencies covert war against the Sandinistas, refused to answer any questions, and told the LA Times he wrote the CIA a letter describing its investigation as 'bullshit.' Pete Carey covered the release of the report for the Mercury News. His story reported that CIA investigators had argued with a witness who claimed the CIA knew about drug trafficking by people the agency had used on various assignments. 'You guys don't want to know the truth,' Carey quoted the witness as telling the CIA."

P.186:
"David Corn of the Nation magazine says the CIA report only 'partially' vindicated Webb. 'It didn't vindicate his story,' he says. 'It vindicated his interest in the subject and his belief that this was important and that something terribly rotten had happened.' Nonetheless, Corn feels that the reports contained 'tremendous admissions' of wrongdoing by the CIA. 'While Nancy Reagan was saying "Just say no," the CIA was saying, "Just don't look," ' he says.
Corn is still amazed that the fact that the CIA finally admitted it had worked with and protected from prosecution Nicaraguan Contra drug traffickers--and then lied about it for years--wasn't a major scandal. 'Here you have the CIA acknowledging they were working with people suspected of drug dealing and it got nary a peep,' he says. 'I think in some ways that's journalistic neglect --criminal neglect. In what definition of news is it not a front - page story that the CIA was working with drug dealers?' "

P.224
French journalist Paul Moreira filmes a 45-minute documentary about Webb.
" 'It was much, much more grave than Watergate,' Moreira says. 'The report comes out precisely in the middle of all the noise around Monica and Bill, and no one pays attention! That's when I discovered that media - noise is the new censorship.'

An amazing book that makes you realize how f***** up our government is, that small-time recreational drug users and small-time drug dealers, in the 80s, were made totally Paranoid by the persecution they got from law enforcement, when all this time our own government was dealing drugs big-time and flooding South Central L.A. with crack cocaine, so they could raise money to send to a guerilla force that tortured and disappeared people, all so they could control a central American country whose government was attempting to serve its own people.

[Rachel Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I knew about Gary Webb before reading Kill the Messenger was what the internet told me: that he exposed the connection between the CIA and America's crack cocaine epidemic, and because of that, the CIA targeted him and organized his downfall and a cover-up of his murder. While I don't necessarily discount that basic summary of the end of his life, I don't know enough information about him either way to have confidence in saying what I think happened to him in that sense. And Kill the Messenger asserted that Gary Webb grew increasingly depressed over inaccuracies in his infamous story, "Dark Alliance," and subsequently committed suicide. Given the evidence in this book, I believe Nick Schou. But I still have my doubts about other circumstances of Webb's reporting and journalism's response to it as a whole.

Schou's telling of this story, however, is not sufficient enough to really explain what happened in Webb's life and in his mind as he grew increasingly distant and despondent: publishing "Dark Alliance," not getting the response he expected, being betrayed by his editors, getting attacked by other journalists, losing his job, getting divorced, etc., etc. That's enough to see that clearly Webb was a man down and out on his luck. But Schou didn't include enough of the biography of Webb that I wanted; his reporting on the man himself was lacking, and this came through in how the story about "Dark Alliance" was told. Because Schou focused so much on the story itself and its response, Schou presented Webb as quite the asshole, a man who though he was never wrong, who was abrasive with authority and his own family and friends, and who jumped too quickly to conclusions that he didn't have evidence to support. So in that sense, while I believe Webb's premise in reporting the CIA/contra/crack epidemic connection, I also now believe, after reading this book, that no one handled the "Dark Aliiance" story very well, not Webb, not his editors, not the journalism community at large.

And indeed, the mainstream legacy media organizations who criticized Gary Webb after the series' publication are the biggest part of the problem in my opinion. Kill the Messenger is really a subtle critique of the process of investigative journalism and its failures. From the beginning, Webb was set up to fail, as being hired to take on a big, contentious investigative piece knowing that it would have detractors and knowing that he would become a target for the story. Then, he didn't have the support he should have from editors and experts in his own bureau, who disliked him for both personal and professional reasons; this pettiness affected the quality of his reporting and writing and rushed him into cutting out the nuance and details and then publishing too soon. And finally, larger national newspapers attacked Gary Webb as a person rather than attacking the story and investigating the CIA connection for themselves, again using Webb as a scapegoat rather than doing actual any follow-up journalism. This is where the contention especially lies: why did legacy journalism ignore this story that they knew parts of already, and why did they attack Webb for divulging more? Is it because they were in someone's pockets? Because people had already tried and failed to investigate more? Because they knew the dangers? I would rather read an expose on the real reasons for the aggressive response and the plain denial of the story.

Indeed, what happened to Gary Webb is tragic and sad. But Schou only raises more questions in this book than answers or enlightenment about Webb's life. I want to know more about Webb the man and his thought processes and emotions throughout all of this—we got a hint of that, but it was all through Webb's own published book a few years after the series, not through any interviews (although Schou did say he met Webb and was in touch with him). I want to know more about the contents of the "Dark Alliance" story, which Schou also touched on but in a very complicated way and certainly not enough detail within one or two chapters. I want to know more about the journalism aspects of getting the story published and facing the backlash. All of those topics were broached somewhat in Kill the Messenger, but not enough to satisfy my newly piqued interest in Webb's story. Schou is a good place to start for information, but now I feel I need to find a better source to learn about Gary Webb, because now I only have more questions.

[Kyle Monsees · Rating 3 out of 5]

A troubling account of one journalist’s star-like rise and fall, Kill the Messenger traces the story of Gary Webb, a reporter who exposed CIA complicity in drug trafficking and who was cast out of journalism due to his reporting.

While the web (forgive the pun) of conspiracy in this story is complex and nuanced, there are several incontrovertible conclusions.

First, Gary Webb’s conclusions (that the CIA was complicit in drug trafficking into the U.S., that these drugs flooded the streets of LA igniting the crack-cocaine boom of the 1980s, and that millions of dollars raised were then funneled to the contras in Nicaragua) were flawed but the reporting accurately uncovered that the CIA turned a blind eye to drug trafficking it knew about, as the CIA would later admit in a 1998 inspector general report.


Second, Webb’s editors at the San Jose Mercury News failed to ensure Dark Alliance captured the nuance of the story without over or understating its implications. They then issued a thinly-veiled retraction and pushed Webb out of their paper.

Third, major newspapers (Washington Post, New York Times, and LA Times) undertook an unprecedented campaign to discredit Webb’s story and personal credibility.

His career was forever tarnished and despite his decades-long career and Pulitzer-Prize winning accolades, he never got a job with another major newspaper. This led, in part, to Webb’s suicide in 2004.

Gary Webb is a cautionary tale for journalists aiming to hold government to account who, while expecting pushback from the government, should take care to appreciate the combined effect of the country’s newspapers who expended considerable resources to destroy his story and reputation.

[Deyth Banger · Rating 4 out of 5]

"December 14, 2017 –
50.0% "1:21:54"
December 13, 2017 –
50.0% "Is a lie or moment of truth?

...

1:08:42"
December 9, 2017 –
15.0% "45:15"
December 9, 2017 –
5.0% "30:51"
December 9, 2017 –
5.0% "This book is going to reveal a secret which makes you to ask yourself how much people do know about what's really happening behind the big walls of the goverment."
December 9, 2017 –
5.0% "24:15"
December 9, 2017 – Shelved
December 9, 2017 – Started Reading"


P.S. - The book deservs 5 stars out of 5 from the main reason Garry Webb was on this story up to end of his life. Which is crazy!

It sounds like typical "DON"T CARE ABOUT MY LIFE", we all knew that he was going to die all such world big deals die, nothing should make him think that he won't die.

It was revealed which means "Congrats " to Garry Webb, but after few days the whole thing was been declassified.

[Matthew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so good. It did drag a bit at times, hence 4 stars and not 5, but it was still really good and quite riveting. The book doesn't go into the details of how the CIA was apart of the drug trade as I was hoping, but told the story about the journalist who essentially uncovered it. It explains it a little bit, but really just left me now really wanting to read Gary Webb's original "Dark Alliance". That actual book however, is almost impossible to find unless you want an electronic copy.

Overall this is definitely a recommended book to pretty much anyone. It touches on so many different subjects from journalism to covert missions to conspiracies and it's short which makes it a pretty easy read.

[Lance Karlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary Webb became somewhat a polarizing figure through his stubborn determination and constant questioning - but this is what all good investigative journalists should be like. Webb was a journalist 'of old' and dared to probe sordid stories which no one else would touch. But behind his doggedness was a character with as many self-doubts and struggles as all of us. Webb inspired the protagonist for my novel, The Noriega Tapes, and left a lasting impression on me. While this book wasn't as well-written as Dark Alliance it did capture his emotional state quite comprehensively. Very sad to see how it all ended, but also some concerning, lingering questions about whether it really was suicide...

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for a journalism class during college. We all want to be the hero of our own story. This story is just that. This book supports Gary Webb and discusses all that went wrong (whether it was his fault or the fault of others) which ultimately caused his downfall.

I appreciated the parts of the novel that showed his upbringing, his family, and how his work was impacting his family. This is probably the only book out there that can give you an inside glimpse into his life.

Some parts may be hard to follow.

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read /Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb/, by Nick Schou:

https://tragedyandhope.com/dark-allia...

Tells the story of Gary Webb's life before the CIA killed him for publishing Dark Alliance, after they warned him not to (Webb's alleged suicide featured multiple shots to his head).

The story of Dark Alliance (how the CIA caused the crack epidemic in Los Angeles and other cities) was much more interesting than the story of Gary's life.

/Kill the Messenger/ is also a movie that I want to see.

[Carlos Dragonné · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una gran crónica de un periodista que el tiempo ha olvidado. Una muestra terrible de lo que es el cuarto poder y la manera en que damos por sentado que nos cuentan la verdad unos y que, otros, puede que la estén contando pero su voz no es tan fuerte. Me quedo con una enorme frase del libro: “Media noise is the new censorship”. Y hoy es absolutamente cierto.

Ahora a ver qué tal les quedó la película.

[Paige Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a fairly good look at what happened with Gary Webb. I think what I liked best was that Schou wasn't just an advocate for Webb. He actually does look at the story critically. I think the way the LA Times, Washington Post and NYTimes responded was pretty awful and it does make you think about how the media chooses to tackle a story. Overall, an interesting if unspectacular book.

[Matt Kresling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Americans condemn other countries for their secret police services, then blithely tolerate the existence of the CIA, which is essentially the means by which the government accomplishes whatever it cannot do legally.

The most disgusting part of the story is how readily the mainstream media labored to discredit a reporter who dared point out as much.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, concise...focused more on Webb and journalism then it did on government malfeasance. Could have spent more time on the crack epidemic and whatnot, but I guess that wasn't the focus of the book.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s kind of interesting that the author keeps pointing out how Webb’s editors let him down- maybe it was some kind of meta call for help about the fate of this book, which desperately needed someone with a sense of form and direction to rescue it. Really makes you think…

[Timmy Connelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."

William Casey
CIA Director 1981

[Phil Osborne]

Ooo

[Matthew Gilman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of cancel culture in the mid 90s.

[Suzanne Grandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

[James Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2