C.I.A., crack, the media.(Central Intelligence Agency; crack cocaine)(Editorial)

Nation, The, June, 1997

Gary Webb's story in the San Jose Mercury News, involving allegations that crack dealing helped the CIA support the contras, has been attacked by other newspapers and the editor of the Mercury News has issued a public apology. In fact, the story was overstated, but may have had some basis in truth.

The never-ending saga of the San Jose Mercury News, the C.I.A.,

contras and crack dealers took yet another strange twist recently

when the newspaper's editor saw fit to issue a public apology. Gary

Webb's four-part series last year, "Dark Alliance," wrote editor Jerry

Ceppos, "fell short of my standards for the Mercury News."

High-profile newspaper apologies, unprompted by lawsuits, are,

generally speaking, a rare and...

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