San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News published the Dark Alliance series in August 1996, using the Internet to share source documents with the public in an unprecedented act of journalistic transparency.
The San Jose Mercury News is a newspaper based in San Jose, California, where Gary Webb worked as an investigative reporter and published the Dark Alliance series in August 1996.1
Publication of Dark Alliance
The Mercury News published the four-part "Dark Alliance" series beginning August 18, 1996. Executive editor Jerry Ceppos initially defended the series, firing off a blistering letter to the Washington Post and posting a memo on the staff bulletin board declaring "we strongly support the conclusions the series drew." Webb received a $500 bonus check and a note from Ceppos: "Remarkable series!"2
Web Innovation
The Mercury News used its Web site, Mercury Center, to post the series with full-color animated maps, uncut source documents, undercover DEA tapes, grand jury testimony, and a bibliography. The Web page received over one million hits. Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia wrote: "The unlimited space of the Web allowed the Mercury News to move forward into a whole new kind of journalism."2
Retraction
In May 1997, Ceppos published a column describing "shortcomings" in the series, effectively killing the investigation. The New York Times splashed the apology on its front page. The Mercury News then transferred Webb to the Cupertino bureau and suppressed four follow-up stories. Webb quit in November 1997.2
Sources
- Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue: "It was like they didn't want to know" ↩
- Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 27: "A very difficult decision" ↩
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