In Memory of Gary Webb - The Perils of Telling the Truth.

Two years ago today, Gary Webb died. He had lost his career, reputation, and his family, and had nothing to live for. Deeply depressed, he committed suicide.

How many people have heard of Gary Webb?

Webb was a crackerjack, Pulitzer prize winning investigative reporter for the San Jose Mercury-News who in 1995 unearthed the story of his life, the Contra-Cocaine affair and it's link to the LA crack epidemic. His editor agreed, and it was published in the Mercury-News as a series, with great expectations. However, Webb was not hailed as the next great Pulitzer candidate. Instead, he was pilloried by the major media as having gotten it wrong - an unprecedented attack on a fellow journalist allegedly orchestrated by the CIA.

His editor abandoned him, he was discredited, forced from his job, and his wife took their children and left him. He later published a book, an incredible story called Dark Alliance that was mostly ignored, sank into anonymity, and finally took his own life.

Telling the truth is not always the safest course of action.

Yes, Webb's story was true, confirmed by Congressional hearings and CIA investigations. So when you get news from the major US media, remember Gary Webb, and this cautionary tale. The media isn't always in the truth business. It has a dark alliance of its own, serving unseen masters and not necessarily the public interest.

I'll leave you now with Webb's own words:

Do we have a free press today? Sure we do. It's free to report all the sex scandals it wants, all the stock market news we can handle, every new health fad that comes down the pike, and every celebrity marriage or divorce that happens. But when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff -- stories like Tailwind, the October Surprise, the El Mozote massacre, corporate corruption, or CIA involvement in drug trafficking -- that's where we begin to see the limits of our freedoms. In today's media environment, sadly, such stories are not even open for discussion.

Back in 1938, when fascism was sweeping Europe, legendary investigative reporter George Seldes observed (in his book, The Lords of the Press) that "it is possible to fool all the people all the time -- when government and press cooperate." Unfortunately, we have reached that point.

and a eugoly, written by a man who suffered a similar fate.

RIP Gary Webb (August 31, 1955 – December 10, 2004)