The Cost of Telling the Truth
Gary Webb won a Pulitzer Prize for his work uncovering the connections between the CIA, cocaine, and Contras. His work was later supported by various Senate committees and FOIA documents. [The original articles by Webb are here.]
Yet in his final days he could not find a journalism job in the US. He was blacklisted. Gary wrote a chapter in the book “Into the Buzzsaw” on what the effects of the “Dark Alliance” articles had on his life. The entire chapter is respectfully reproduced at News Making News. He should have gone to the BBC to work with Greg Palast.
An article Webb wrote explaining the effects of the articles on his life is at Counterpunch.
In 2004, Webb allegedly committed suicide with a shotgun to the head. (The original report from the coroner’s office, the original Associated Press article, and The Sacramento Bee all claimed multiple wounds. The Associated Press and coroner later changed their stories to one gunshot wound.) That same year, in a widely distributed listserv email, John Roland (a journalist for Constitution.org) claimed that when he brought up a possible government “suiciding,” Webb stated that “if he died it would not be suicide.” So, multiple gunshot wounds, and a strong affirmation that he would not kill himself.
There were even reports of Gary Webb being harassed and intimidated during his last days. Ricky Ross was one of Gary’s sources. He is currently in jail for crack cocaine trafficking, and is known as one of the biggest crack dealers in history. Gary Webb told Ricky Ross of people following him, tapping his phones, and lurking near his house just before his death. Gary told Ross flat out that it was the government, and that he was still working on the case. The audio conversation with Ricky Ross, which includes the moment Ross finds out about Gary’s death, is available for listening here (mp3 file).
When he died, the LA Times’ obituary (PDF) had the gall to claim that his reports were still largely unsubstantiated. What the writers failed to mention were the many CIA reports and Congressional investigations that found direct evidence of Webb’s claims.
But a slandering obituary cannot keep years of hard journalism down. Webb is not yet a household name -but he might just become one. The rights to Webb’s book Dark Alliance and a biography on Webb written by his friend were bought by Universal in 2008. As reported by Variety, Universal is actually developing a Gary Webb film. With notoriety and scandal comes death, and maybe a great film.
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