Time

Time magazine covered the Dark Alliance story, calling it "the hottest topic in black America" during the height of the public reaction in 1996. The magazine's coverage was part of the initial wave of media attention that preceded the establishment media counterattack.¹

Coverage of Dark Alliance

Time's characterization of the Dark Alliance series reflected the genuine public interest and outrage that the story generated in African American communities across the United States. The magazine's coverage came during the brief window between the series' publication in August 1996 and the October 1996 counterattack by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. After the establishment papers attacked Gary Webb's reporting, coverage of the story's substance largely disappeared from mainstream media outlets including Time.²

Ownership

On September 16, 2018, the Meredith Corporation, which had acquired Time Inc., announced that it would sell the Time brand to Marc Benioff and Lynne Benioff for 190 million dollars in cash. The purchase was personal to the Benioffs and "unrelated to Salesforce.com," and the couple were not to be "involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions," which remained with the editor-in-chief, Edward Felsenthal. Citigroup and Cooley advised Meredith; BDT & Company and Goodwin Procter advised the Benioffs. Meredith applied the proceeds to reducing its debt. "TIME has always been a trusted reflection of the state of the world," the Benioffs said.³

BCCI Reporting

On July 29, 1991, Time published "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All," by Jonathan Beaty and S. C. Gwynne, which the two reporters later expanded into The Outlaw Bank (1993).⁴