Ironically, new evidence indicates that the Mercury News
series actually understated the extent of CIA involvement in the
cocaine trade
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Last summer,
the San Jose Mercury News published a series
linking the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contras to the spread of crack
cocaine in urban America. In October the country's most powerful
big-city dailies -- the Washington Post, New York Times and Los
Angeles Times -- published lengthy attacks on the series. Their
triple-barreled assault is still reverberating in the national
media's echo chamber.
Now, the media watch group FAIR has released a report titled
"Snow Job: The Establishment's Papers Do Damage Control for the
CIA." A team of researchers scrutinized the high-profile
critiques by the Post, L.A. Times and New York Times. Among our
findings:
Mercury News reporter Gary Webb was frequently assailed
for failing to prove what he'd never claimed in the first place.
Webb had already acknowledged in his articles that -- while he
proves contra links to major cocaine importation -- he can't
identify specific CIA officials who knew of or condoned the
trafficking.
Some critics took issue with the Mercury News for
referring to the contras as "the CIA's army." But the phrase is
solid journalism, highlighting a relationship that's
fundamentally relevant to the story. The contra army was formed
at the instigation of the CIA, its leaders were selected by --
and received salaries from -- the agency, and CIA officers
controlled day-to-day battlefield strategies.
The three newspapers frequently presented the statements
of CIA officials as touchstones for veracity.
This fall, the Los Angeles Times joined the other two
dailies in downplaying the importance of crack dealer Ricky Ross,
who was supplied by a pair of Nicaraguan cocaine smugglers
connected to the contras. Yet two years ago, on Dec. 20, 1994, a
long news article in the L.A. Times described Ross as the "king
of crack" whose "coast-to-coast conglomerate" was responsible for
"a staggering turnover that put the drug within reach of anyone
with a few dollars."
As with the L.A. Times reversal regarding Ross, all three
papers repeatedly engaged in an Orwellian process. The FAIR
report begins by quoting George Orwell's description of
doublethink: "...to forget any fact that has become inconvenient,
and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from
oblivion for just so long as it is needed..."
New York Times reporting was so eager to distance the
CIA's army from the CIA that it ventured into absurdity. The
Times noted that pro-contra cocaine traffickers Norvin Meneses
and Danilo Blandon "traveled once to Honduras to see the FDN's
military commander, Enrique Bermudez." But the Times quickly
added: "Although Mr. Bermudez, like other contra leaders, was
often paid by the CIA, he was not a CIA agent."
Depicting African-Americans as delusional quickly became a
stylish media fixation. Themes of black paranoia accompanied the
attacks on the Mercury News series. Ironically, top editors at
the Washington Post, New York Times and L.A. Times ended up
ignoring evidence that did not fit their preconceived outlook --
the true mark of the delusional mindset.
The three newspapers were driven by a need to defend their
shoddy record on the contra-cocaine story -- after ignoring or
disparaging key information on the subject in the 1980s.
Ironically, new evidence indicates that the Mercury News
series actually understated the extent of CIA involvement in the
cocaine trade. Citing the conclusions of investigative
journalists at Britain's ITV television, the London-based daily
The Independent reported on Dec. 12: "The CIA actively encouraged
drug-trafficking in order to fund right-wing contra rebels in
Nicaragua during the 1980s, and a CIA agent in Nicaragua was
employed to ensure the money went to the contras and not into the
pockets of drug barons."
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