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Talk:Gary Webb

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Vinsci (talk | contribs) at 20:26, 4 April 2005 (→Bibliography: +'97 Salon story). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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More External links

The comments on the Kuro5hin article have many additional/related links. See R.I.P. Gary Webb -- Unembedded Reporter, in particular BACKGROUND ON THE CIA-DRUG CONNECTION - haven't gone through these though. --L

Comments by Andres Kargar

Comments by Andres Kargar have been removed. Misplaced Pages is not a soapbox, chatroom, discussion forum, propaganda, advocacy of any kind, nor critical reviews, personal essays, primary research, or memorials. Please consult the edit history. Please read What Misplaced Pages is not. Feel free to discuss improving this article on this page. --Viriditas | Talk 11:42, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Comments in question are second from bottom in 'history', for the record. I have copied them to Talk:David_Corn where they may help those writing that article. By the way, "What wikipedia is" is not exactly the same as what the Talk: pages are. 67.124.101.60 23:43, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Actually, you're mistaken. See Misplaced Pages:Talk page. On Misplaced Pages, the purpose of a talk page is to help to improve the contents of the main page, from an encyclopedic point of view. Questions, challenges, excised text (due to truly egregious confusion or bias, for example), arguments relevant to changing the text, and commentary on the main page are all fair play.Wikipedians generally oppose the use of talk pages just for the purpose of partisan talk about the main subject. Misplaced Pages is not a soapbox, it's an encyclopedia. In other words, talk about the article, not about the subject. It's only the habits we encourage that keep Misplaced Pages from turning into another H2G2 or Everything2. --Viriditas | Talk 00:47, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Missing references section

The background for Dark Alliance is complicated and not easy to penetrate from a quick glance. Moreover, the picture changed drastically over time (in Webbs favor). The article should therefore have a good reference section.

There still seems to be substantial confusion from the DoJ and CIA reports, which probably stems from the highly misleading executive summaries of the long documents (also see CIA Confirms It Allowed Contra Drug Trafficking). This should be mentioned in the references section, to avoid further confusion.

Also, the link collection here (also mentioned above) is worth looking into further. --Vinsci | Talk 08:26, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Vinsci's lead vs. Viajero

Vinsci

Gary Webb (1955 – December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist for 19 years, focusing on government and private sector corruption and winning more than 30 journalism awards. He was best known for his 1996 "Dark Alliance" newspaper article series (later published as a book under the same title) in which he explored the Contra-crack cocaine connection. His controversial and highly damaging revelations were disputed at the time and while later confirmed, the affair effectively ended his career as a journalist.

Viajero

Gary Webb (1955 – December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist best known for his 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose Mercury News in which he explored the Contra-crack cocaine connection (it was later published as a book under the same title). His controversial and highly damaging revelations were disputed at the time, and the affair effectively ended his career as a journalist.

See also: Misplaced Pages:Guide to writing better articles

Viajero's version lacks the ring of truth that should be expected in an open source capsule. The facts referenced by Vinsci were later verified nearly point by point in the evidence uncovered by commission reports, which actually revealed that the scope of the CIA's operation was much larger than the shard Webb reported on. The commission reports went out of their way to downplay their own findings. The fact that Webb was actually vindicated received little press coverage, especially when compared to the unbridled backlash against Webb that also happened to prompt the Mercury News to disown him. Most mainstream press reports after Webb's death continued in this vein, as has Viajero. Ombudsman 06:54, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I am quite aware that Webb has been largely vindicated. Please note operative phrase at the time. I am sure it isn't necessary to spell this out for you, but it implies that people think differently now, that is to say, the revelations are now longer rejected out of hand. I think it is safe to assume our readers have the cognitive abilities to parse this statement correctly and reach this conclusion on their own. -- Viajero 08:46, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Excellent point. --Viriditas | Talk 10:34, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Bibliography

Archives of articles by Gary Webb

  • BBC News
Shortly before his death, Webb was asked by the BBC to comment on the U.S. presidential election 2004 on a 'U.S. voters panel'. This was a series of short commentaries.
  • BBC Election Coverage Main page (see voter's view section)
"When the BBC asked me to be on this voter panel, I had no intention of voting. Rejecting both candidates is the only honest choice in that case. George Bush did all of those things, unapologetically, to this nation's everlasting disgrace. That's why I'm voting for John Kerry."
Panel comments he didn't participate in are omitted.

Book reviews

  • Dark Alliance
Venomous critique, ridicules the author and the story while at the same time omitting supportive evidence, such as the secret CIA/DoJ agreement of 1982, North's diary entry that 14 million USD to finance arms came from drugs, CIA's confessions, etc. Discusses the .ni side of the story. Also mentions 1980's lawsuits that were dropped - followup.
Written in a matter of factly manner. Interesting, many references. Followup.

Comments in media at the time

More to come... --Vinsci 12:52, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)

2x ext links Sacbee

I have reorganized the external links. Given the large number links we now have, I we can afford to be selective and I have moved these two here:

If any one feels strongly they should be included, please state your reasons and we can discuss it. -- Viajero 09:31, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

They should be moved to a "Notes" section and used as footnote references. I'll get around to it some time (anyone is welcome to help). Feel free to leave them here, for now. --Viriditas | Talk 09:46, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)