Gary Webb was a Pulitzer Prizewinning investigative reporter who started working at the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. In August 1996, Webb broke a major story, and it was one of the first stories to go viral on the Internet. In his 20,000-word, three-part series called Dark Alliance, he accused the CIA of turning a blind eye to crack cocaine being trafficked into the United States from Nicaragua in the 1980s. The reason they allowed it was because the money was buying arms to support the contras in Nicaragua that wanted to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government, which is what the CIA wanted. Webbs claim was highly controversial: In order to win a proxy war, the CIA had allowed crack cocaine to flood mostly black urban communities during the crack cocaine epidemic. The news was a huge story when it broke, and the CIA knew it was a public relations nightmare. Interestingly enough, they didnt have to actively discredit him. The CIA simply did not confirm anything that Webb wrote but did confirm any story that undermined Webbs accusations. And there were plenty of reporters who tried to discredit Webb. Many newspapers, especially the Los Angeles Times, felt burned that Webb had broken the story. They printed anything that might go against the story, and Webb ended up being fired in disgrace.
Things got so bad for Webb that, despite being a Pulitzer Prizewinner, he could only get a part-time job at a small, weekly newspaper. Besides his credibility and his job, he also lost his friends and his family. Webb committed suicide on December 10, 2004.
It was later proved that Webb was right. The CIA did allow crack cocaine to be imported into the United States. Webbs story was made into the 2014 movie Kill the Messenger, with Jeremy Renner in the role of Webb.
Poster Comment:
The above is merely the last case cited. This is another fantastic (i.e. grisly) tyranny-buster by Listverse. I notice there are lots of comments under it -- somebody post one and share it with us.
Don't share it with me -- I'm in the doghouse for some reason nobody will say. Share it with everybody else and I won't look :-5
Isn't tyranny wonderful -- especially where bolstered around the world by yankee money and machinations? In commie China (3rd case in article) you could (can?) get the exciting choice of just going along with the tyranny and never saying anything or speaking up, getting 20 years and then as an incoherent shell of yourself becoming a burden on society.
Ah, Chairman Mao -- what a progressive. "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs"....