WaPo: Gary Webb was no journalism hero, despite what ‘Kill the Messenger’ says

Anyone with cooking skills can turn cocaine into crack. Just like wikipedia but Pyrex instead of a spoon. No need for the CIA!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gary-webb-was-no-journalism-hero-despite-what-kill-the-messenger-says/2014/10/17/026b7560-53c9-11e4-809b-8cc0a295c773_story.html

Gradually, the Mercury News backed away from Webb's scoop. The paper transferred him to its Cupertino bureau and did an internal review of his facts and his methods. Jerry Ceppos, the Mercury News's executive editor, wrote a piece concluding that the story did not meet the newspaper's standards — a courageous stance, I thought. "We oversimplified the complex issue of how the crack epidemic in America grew," Ceppos wrote. "Through imprecise language and graphics, we created impressions that were open to misinterpretation."

Beginning in 1985, journalists started pursuing tips about the CIA’s role in the drug trade. Was the agency allowing cocaine to flow into the United States as a means to fund its secret war supporting the contra rebels in Nicaragua? Many journalists, including me, chased that story from different angles, but the extraordinary proof was always lacking.

Finally, in April 1989, the U.S. Senate subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international operations, chaired by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), weighed in. After an exhaustive three-year investigation, the committee’s report concluded that CIA officials were aware of the smuggling activities of some of their charges who supported the contras, but it stopped short of implicating the agency directly in drug dealing.