Dark Alliance


Hilbert College

Annotated Bibliography:

Dark Alliance

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(Note: This paper was written at the University of South Carolina)

Brown, Chip. (1999) The State of the American Newspaper: Part 12. Online: http://ajr.newslink.org

This article deals with newspapers developing an Internet presence, as pioneered first on America Online and then on the Web by the Mercury Center. Its publication of the Dark Alliance series marked a major point in online news reporting due to the national and international audience it brought into reach, as well as the depth it added to the printed version by way of links to related resources. The article also discusses the difficulties of such an arrangement, like getting reporters and editors to work with the site maintainers, and getting funding from organizations concerned primarily with the printed version of the paper.

Covert, Brian and Scott Gorman. (1997) The Use of the Web in Investigative Reporting: A Case Study. Online: http://www.realnews.org

This presentation offers an interview with Webb, a synopsis of his series, and an analysis of it. In the interview Webb emphasizes the evidence available online supporting his story. He explains the importance of the supporting evidence available on the Web because the claims in the printed article were too dramatic to be accepted without substantiation. He also discusses the popularity of the Web page, which one day had 1.3 million hits. Webb claims several follow-up pieces are to be published (they never were, however). The analysis concentrates on the Web presentation of the series. It puts much weight on the links to evidence, using it to answer most of the criticism the series drew, much the same way that Webb himself defends his work.

Elliott, Jeff. (1996) CIA-Contra Drug Deal Named Top Story. Online: http://www.monitor.net

This article focuses on the criticism of Webb's "Dark Alliance" series by large news organizations. It cites a FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) report on the criticisms. The report characterizes the actions of these organizations as consistent with their usual policy of protecting the status quo. It compares these actions to those of National Public Radio during the Gulf War, which earned it the nickname "National Pentagon Radio".

Elliott, Jeff. (1997) Darker Alliances. Online: http://www.monitor.net

This article explores extensively the media ethics angle of the debate over the "Dark Alliances" series. It comes out mainly in support of Webb and his writings while scathingly criticizing the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post in their reaction to the series. It claims that they blatantly misrepresented the series, committing far graver journalistic wrongs than Webb was guilty of. Other offenses to journalistic integrity such as the refusal of the Washington Post to print a letter from Mercury News editor Jerry Ceppos answering its criticisms. The article raises again and again the question of why the major papers reacted to the series as they did, but the question is never answered.

Heyboer, Kelly. (1996) A Furor Over the CIA and Drugs. Online: http://ajr.newslink.org

This article narrates the events surrounding the controversy over the "Dark Alliance" series. It presents commentary from the series' critics, mainly from the Washington Post and other papers which had ignored the issue in the past. The article offers no conclusion as to the validity of the series, but refers readers to the online version and supporting documentation that backed up the claims of the story.

Hinckle, Pia. (1997) Soul Searching in San Jose. Online: http://www.cjr.org

This article delves into the background of the printing of the "Dark Alliance" series, i.e. the editing process it went through before it was published. It follows through with the changes the paper made to this process following the controversy over the articles. It also chronicles how the series split the Mercury News staff into two camps, one supporting and the other attacking the series and Webb himself. Interestingly enough, the division in the staff along ethnic and gender lines closely mirrors the way the American public was divided over the series. The article ends discussing actions taken assigning Webb to Cupertino and out of investigative work, with Webb resolved to fight the decision.

Kornbluh, Peter. (1997) The Storm Over "Dark Alliance". Online: http://www.cjr.org

A critical view of all the players in the "Dark Alliance" debate is presented in this article. It tracks how the original article became a "metastory", with both supporters and critics misrepresenting the claims of the series as it became more prominent in the public eye. It also makes clear what the series actually consisted of. The article reaches the final conclusion that the series was overwritten, but the that the mainstream media bears the larger blame for mishandling the issue. They first ignored the topic then rushed to critique the San Jose Mercury News and protect the CIA rather than getting the facts straight after the story broke.

O'Brien, Soledad. (1997) Interview with Gary Webb. Online: http://www.zdnet.com

In this interview Webb discusses his series and hopes for future related articles, but he primarily talks about the impact of putting his story on the Web. He feels that providing evidence that previously only reporters had access to (due to lack of space on a printed page) answers many of the questions raised about the series. He also notes that the series' availability online increased the usage of the Web in black communities, as well as sustaining interest in it worldwide for months.

PBS Newshour Forum. (1996) Crack and the Contras. Online: http://www.pbs.org

In this question and answer session at a PBS Newshour Forum, Gary Webb answers questions about his series. He identifies the single biggest obstacle in researching it as a total lack of government cooperation. Even when he submitted Freedom of Information Act requests, they were denied. Public records disappeared from court files, as did one witness from a Nicaraguan prison. Webb also comments on the criticism of his series by major news organizations, suggesting that they could hardly publicly accept the validity of an important story that they had ignored for a decade.

Rieder, Rem. (1997) The Lessons of "Dark Alliance". Online: http://ajr.newslink.org

In this article the editor of the American Journalism Review, Rem Reider, takes the stance that Gary Webb went too far in linking crack sales in America to the contras in Nicaragua. He focuses on Mercury News editor Jerry Ceppos' column about their series. Reider portrays Ceppos' column as a "merciless dissection" of Webb's work. He says that Ceppos' response is the sort of thing needed to restore the faith of the people in the press, the lack of which he says is due to the arrogance and lack of accountability like that displayed by Gary Webb with his work.

Robertson, Lori. (1999) Untangled Webb. Online: http://ajr.newslink.org

This article provides an update on the position of Gary Webb after the Dark Alliance series and its aftermath. Soon after the series was published Webb was transferred out of investigative reporting and "exiled" to the paper's small Cupertino office, a move that Webb protested through a grievance filed with the Newspaper Guild. Webb was moved nonetheless. Now he has resigned from that position and quit the paper altogether. Webb and the paper reached an agreement not to discuss the terms of his departure.

Shepard, Alicia C. (1997) The Web That Gary Spun. Online: http://ajr.newslink.org

This article tells the story of the "Dark Alliance" series and its aftermath from the perspective of a former reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, the paper that ran the series. It recounts the articles and editorials from major papers after the series' publication and the problems with them, such as the way one Los Angeles Times reporter portrayed a figure central to the story. Jesse Katz described Ricky Ross as a drug dealer of unparalleled significance in one 1994 article, but in his article responding to the "Dark Alliance" series he greatly downplays Ross' importance. The article also makes clear Jerry Ceppos' position of standing by the story despite being misquoted and misinterpreted extensively on the subject. For this reason he will no longer comment on the series.

Silverthorne, Sean. (1996) Dark Alliance: The Newspaper Reinvented. Online: http://www.zdnet.com

The accuracy of the "Dark Alliance" series is left almost untouched in this article, the focus instead being on the way the series was published in print and on the Web simultaneously. It identifies two major advantages of posting the story on the Mercury Center, the online incarnation of the newspaper. First, on the Web links to supporting evidence could be included, such as additional photos, Senate transcripts, and audio from DEA undercover surveillance. Second, the Web greatly increased the reach of the paper. Even though the Mercury News is not one of the major players in the world of newspaper publication, it was able to break a national story and scoop major publications like the Washington Post.

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