Why Journalist Gary Webb Died

[laststeamtrain]

consortiumnews.com

Why Journalist Gary Webb Died

By Robert Parry (A Special Report)
December 9, 2009

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. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning.

Webb’s death on the night of Dec. 9, 2004, came as the U.S. press corps was at a nadir, having recently aided and abetted President George W. Bush in taking the country to war in Iraq under false pretenses. The press corps also had performed abysmally in Bush’s two presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, hesitant to take on the powerful Bush Family.

In retrospect, Webb’s suicide could be viewed as an exclamation point on that sorry era, which had begun a quarter century earlier with the rise of Ronald Reagan and the gradual retreat – under right-wing fire – of what had once been Washington’s Watergate/Pentagon Papers watchdog press corps.

Yet, five years after Webb’s death, the U.S. news media continues to scrape along the bottom, still easily intimidated by the bluster of right-wing media attack groups and fast-talking neoconservatives – and still gullible in the face of lies and myths used to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the sad tale of Gary Webb remains instructive for anyone wanting to understand what went wrong with the U.S. news media and why much more work is needed to rebuild an independent press corps as a safeguard for the American Republic.

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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/120909.html
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[midnight]

1. The media wanted only to read the script laid out in front of them. Collect

invitations to ride on presidential planes, and special parties. The media decided they wanted to be wined and dined....

[KT2000]

2. Exactly!

they want to belong to the elite class. They have abdicated their role as outsiders reporting.

[nashville_brook]

3. big kick for Parry and Webb.

[pmorlan1]

4. Expose Them All

I only wish this piece had named more names than just the WaPo's faux journalist, Howie Kurtz. I think every so called "journalist" or media exec who got ahead by stepping on Mr. Webb should be exposed for all to see because these cowards are still sweeping major stories under the rug in order to maintain their precious access to the powerful. Mr. Parry is right - what they did to Webb was just the beginning of our establishment media's long painful slide into the mud.

[bertman]

5. Rec and kick.

[Wilms]

6. .

[Blue Owl]

7. Gary Webb was one brave man

He got too close to the fire...

[roody]

8. suicide? maybe not

[Doctor_J]

9. I take issue with one statement

still easily intimidated by the bluster of right-wing media attack groups and fast-talking neoconservatives – and still gullible in the face of lies and myths used to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The media is neither intimidated nor gullible - they are an integral and devoted part of the fascist cabal that runs the country. Except for a handful of token liberals/Dems at a very few outlets, Big Media is as ideological pure and Goebbels' machine 70 years ago.

Recommended - Robert Parry is a jewel.

[Downwinder]

10. Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” Returns to the Internet

http://narconews.com/darkalliance/

[Uncle Joe]

11. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, laststeamtrain.