Encore The die is cast-The Firestorm of Dark Alliance and CIA Complicity Wednesday, August 17, 2022

In this episode we examine a unique type of reporting called investigative journalism, requiring unbridled courage, integrity and sacrifice from certain journalists to bring stories of major significance to public attention. In their role as watchdogs, investigative journalists play a crucial role in placing greater scrutiny on the abuses of power and influence. One of the most famous examples in recent memory includes “The Watergate Scandal” in 1972, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. However in this episode, we focus on the crusading work of one such journalist, Gary Webb and his subsequent demise at the hands of the established elites of his own industry. He was an award winning investigative journalist best known for his 1996 series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News, entitled “Dark Alliance-The Story behind the Crack Explosion.” Webb’s expose revealed that the CIA helped to initiate America’s crack cocaine epidemic in the early to mid 1980s. This elaborate scheme involved drug traffickers linked to the Contras (a CIA-backed guerrilla army in Nicaragua) who were plotting an attempted coup of the socialist Sandinista government. The proceeds of this illicit operation were used to fund the contras, while the imported cocaine worth millions of dollars were destined for the most impoverished cities in America. His series sparked public outrage, not only about the American government’s role in drug trafficking, but also because low income black neighbourhoods, in the south-central area of Los Angeles were the prime targets. It made a mockery of the US government’s highly celebrated “war on drugs” policy at home and abroad. We examine the mainstream media’s initial disregard for the story, followed by the outright attack from the “Big Three” major dailies. Webb’s story was discredited with allegations of shoddy reporting and poor editorial practices at the Mercury News. But even more damaging were accusations that “Dark Alliance” was nothing more than a conspiracy theory and the work of an irrational fantasist. Webb’s series was also attacked for lighting the fuse on a widespread sentiment known as “Black Paranoia.” This referred to a federal conspiracy to undermine inner city Black-American neighbourhoods during the 1980s. Also of interest, is how the CIA manipulated its “productive relations” with the press, using its media assets to undermine “Dark Alliance.” We then outline the subsequent demise of Gary Webb, as a result of the shameful attack on his story and subsequent public humiliation. In the final section we explain how Webb’s character assassination was enacted by “weaponizing” the journalistic profession via the concept of legitimacy and autonomy. This raises troubling questions about its legitimacy as a professional platform of discourse and the authority of its “moral badge” of ethics and protocols, which stem from the depth of its obsequiousness and unremitting pursuit of power and status.