Dark Alliance event
also: the four-part series, the series, the story
Explore in graph → Export claims (CSV) ↓
Related entities (most co-mentioned)
San Jose Mercury Newsorganization · 6Jerry Cepposperson · 5CIAintelligence service · 5The Washington Postorganization · 4Los Angeles Timesorganization · 3Jerry Seppesperson · 3Los Angelesplace · 3Wiredorganization · 2Don Yaegerperson · 2Contrasorganization · 2Gary Webbperson · 2National Public Radioorganization · 1Boston Globeorganization · 1Norwin Menendezperson · 1Enrique Miranda Jamieperson · 1Indianapolisplace · 1Pamela Kramerperson · 1Carlos Cabezasperson · 1Peter Careyperson · 1Jonathan Krimperson · 1Bostoncountry · 1United Statescountry · 1Washington, D.C.place · 1The New York Timesorganization · 1
Claims (5)
Gary Webb exposed
Dark Alliance book_quoted
“I was at a party at my best friend's house in Indianapolis. I excused myself, went to the bathroom, plugged in my laptop, and dialed into the Mercury's website. A picture of a man smoking crack superimposed upon the seal of the CIA drew its…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 24 @ 18:13
Gary Webb exposed
Dark Alliance host_asserted
“was over a million. People in Japan, Bosnia, Germany, and Denmark all emailed him. Meanwhile, we continued advancing the story. I teamed up with Pamela Kramer, the Mercury's reporter in Los Angeles, and we wrote several stories about the 19…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 24 @ 32:32
Jerry Ceppos covered_up
Dark Alliance guest_asserted
“and Peter Carey, an investigative reporter, to gather information with the L.A. crack market. He also made another decision. He was changing the logo of the series that we had used and the CIA seal was coming off. What's the point of doing …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 24 @ 1:02:58
San Jose Mercury News covered_up
Dark Alliance guest_asserted
“But Cepos wouldn't budge on that issue. Thousands of reprints with the CIA crack logo were gathered up and burned, and a CD-ROM version of the series, which had been pressed and was ready for distribution, were all destroyed. The Post and t…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 24 @ 1:03:26
Jerry Ceppos covered_up
Dark Alliance guest_asserted
“If there was ever a chance of getting to the bottom of the CIA's involvement in drug trafficking, it died that day. New York Times, which hadn't found the original series newsworthy, splashed Seppo's apology on the front frickin' page. Howa…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 24 @ 1:19:25
Mentions (25)
▶ 8:00
reaction to Dark Alliance, I was gratified but not surprised. They loved it. She was happy. They couldn't wait to get it in the paper. They thought it was important. Groundbreaking reporting. Congratulations. But there was one hitch. They t…
▶ 12:24
The rest of the editing went fairly smoothly, and by July 26, 1996, the four-part series was done, edited, and ready for print. It was going to be printed August 18. Late one night, towards the end of July, the phone rang. Well, I have some…
▶ 18:13
I was at a party at my best friend's house in Indianapolis. I excused myself, went to the bathroom, plugged in my laptop, and dialed into the Mercury's website. A picture of a man smoking crack superimposed upon the seal of the CIA drew its…
▶ 18:41
Initially, the silence was deafening. Then we realized why. They had unintentionally ran the series the week between the Republican-Democrat national conventions. The national media and the nation's politicians were on vacation. Nobody was …
▶ 19:06
That combination, talk radio and the internet, is what saved Dark Alliance from slipping silently below the surface and disappearing without a trace. The internet wizards at Mercury Center, Mark Hall, Donna Yanish, and Albert Poon, had done…
▶ 21:32
in a whole new kind of journalism. Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia would later write of Dark Alliance, quote, the Mercury News used the web to let intelligent readers review the source material and draw their own conclusion. This step, far…
▶ 23:58
Anything you need, let us know. We want to run with this thing. A few days later, I got a $500 bonus check in the mail and a note from the editor. Remarkable series. Thanks for doing this for us. I was on a national public radio the followi…
▶ 24:25
This energy was amazing. For the first time, people could hear about the story on the radio, even one that appeared several weeks earlier and thousands of miles away and immediately read it. Unlike all of the previous stories about the Cont…
▶ 25:23
Hot Wired magazine wrote in October 1996, for the first time, my grandmother asked to go online and read something. I couldn't believe it. She wouldn't look at a computer before. One black government lawyer emailed the magazine. This story …
▶ 25:53
Dark Alliance, Hotwire wrote, is making digital and media history. The Mercury News is demonstrating for perhaps the first time how the web and traditional press can fuse to great effect and that there's a chance to break modern media's par…
▶ 26:20
and further the web's reputation as a powerful, serious information medium. Associated Press noted that while no one had been able to track specific numbers of Blacks who might have been online because of the Mercury News series, many felt …
▶ 27:15
the series itself. It was the image of the future where big media was unable to control the national agenda. Irrespective of what the series said, Dark Alliance proved that the stranglehold a relative few East Coast editors and producers ha…
▶ 35:49
made it more difficult for them to report it. How could they come back 10 years later and admit everything that they had denied? In early October, I was in New York City getting ready for an appearance on the Montel Williams show, which was…
▶ 41:03
I wrote, set post, a memo pointing out the holes in the post story. The pinkest piece I wrote, quote, is just silly. It's the kind of story you'd expect from someone who spent three weeks working on a story as opposed to 16 months, unquote.…
▶ 41:59
While there is considerable circumstantial evidence of CIA involvement with the leaders of this drug ring, we never reached or reported any definitive conclusion on the CIA involvement. We reported that men selling cocaine to Los Angeles me…
▶ 42:26
but we did not go further and took pains to say that clearly, unquote. CEPOS posted the letter on the staff bulletin board along with the memo defending the series. We strongly support the conclusions the series drew and will until someone …
▶ 48:33
Pincus' big scoop was completely bullshit. The LA Times and the New York Times struck next. On October 20th, 1996, both ran stories attacking my reporting in the series. They took the same tact as the Washington Post, admitting that the bas…
▶ 1:01:30
The unprecedented attack by three major newspapers alarmed the Mercury editors. I was called to a meeting with Cepos and the other editors and told that I should quit trying to advance the story. We needed to start working on a written resp…
▶ 1:02:58
and Peter Carey, an investigative reporter, to gather information with the L.A. crack market. He also made another decision. He was changing the logo of the series that we had used and the CIA seal was coming off. What's the point of doing …
▶ 1:03:26
But Cepos wouldn't budge on that issue. Thousands of reprints with the CIA crack logo were gathered up and burned, and a CD-ROM version of the series, which had been pressed and was ready for distribution, were all destroyed. The Post and t…
▶ 1:05:21
I could have kissed him, Gary Webb said. In January of 1997, I sent first drafts of four follow-up stories to Dawn, written as a two-day series. The first part dealt with Menendez's DEA connections and his Costa Rican operation, along with …
▶ 1:07:12
Aside from Don, no one called me. They'd read the news stories. No one called with any questions. No one even suggested they'd begin editing them. In early February, Don sent me a copy of the story Peter Carey and Pam Kramer had written on …
▶ 1:12:59
We should have said Blanton claimed he quit dealing with the Contras in 1983, something the editors had cut to save space. We had insufficient proof to say millions went to the Contras. We should have said it was an estimate. We should have…
▶ 1:14:42
I then described how the editors themselves had requested an increased emphasis on the CIE's involvement, how cutting the series from four parts to three parts had damaged it, and how the last-minute assignment of new editors had weakened i…
▶ 1:18:26
The Contrants weren't dealing in cocaine. The CIA did nothing wrong. And you know as well as I do, that's not true. Well, Krim said, you're the one who's always saying that we can't be held responsible for what other people read into things…