[Peace-discuss] @ the Art: "Kill the Messenger" docdrama on natl security journalism martyr Gary Webb

Sun Oct 19 15:45:57 EDT 2014

Here are some key sources in the debate now raging over "Kill the
Messenger," one opposed to the movie, two in support:

Jeff Leen: Gary Webb was no journalism hero, despite what ‘Kill the
Messenger’ says
http://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

Robert Parry: WPost’s Slimy Assault on Gary Webb
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/10/18/wposts-slimy-assault-on-gary-webb/

Jeff Cohen: The Resurrection of Reporter Gary Webb: Will Hollywood Give Him
Last Word Against the CIA's Media Apologists?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-cohen/the-resurrection-of-repor_b_5939914.html

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 2:04 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Robert, I didn't mean to criticize you, but rather point out the many
> sources of information available to us today if one is willing to make the
> effort. I agree if one only listens or views DemocracyNow, or any one
> source of information,  they would be getting only one perspective, that's
> the issue.
> It's rather like a college student who only reads the one assigned text,
> he will be merely a pawn of the establishment. We must at all times
> "expand" our efforts to gain knowledge.
>
> I was actually hoping to elicit more dialog related to more sources of
> information available for those out there who think only the "mainstream"
> media is what we need to read and critique.
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 11:00:37 -0500
> To: karenaram at hotmail.com
> CC: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] @ the Art: "Kill the Messenger" docdrama on
> natl security journalism martyr Gary Webb
>
> From: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
> I did not say that "there is no alternative." I said that we have no
> alternative to consuming mainstream media.
>
> Democracy Now makes a wonderful contribution. But it's mainly an interview
> show, that also has a short "headlines" feature that echoes stories from
> mainstream media. It doesn't do much original investigative reporting. It's
> not, for the most part, doing what Gary Webb did and investigative
> journalists do. That's not a criticism, necessarily; if you do one thing
> well, it doesn't mean that you do everything well; it's not a damning
> criticism to say that someone doesn't do everything well; the fundamental
> problem isn't that there is something lacking in Democracy Now; the
> fundamental problem is thinking that Democracy Now is doing something that
> it's not capable of doing. If the only news source you consume directly is
> Democracy Now, you're still consuming mainstream media - you're just doing
> it through a filter constructed by Democracy Now. Constructing that filter
> is certainly a useful function, and it certainly makes consuming the news
> more palatable for leftists, but you're still mostly consuming news
> originally produced by mainstream media. Democracy Now is reading the New
> York Times on your behalf and highlighting particular things. It's a
> dangerous illusion to think that getting all your news from Democracy Now
> protects you from the biases of mainstream news in the United States. It's
> one piece of the puzzle; it's not the whole puzzle.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
> On Sat, Oct 18, 2014 at 1:34 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Robert
>
> Excellent review of the film "Kill the Messenger", thank you. I do
> challenge your last statement that "there is no alternative to US main
> stream media", or rather our corporate owned media, there is
> however "Democracy Now", " The Thom Hartmann Show", "Aware on the Air", "
> News from Neptune" all on UPTV 6, and RT News, though no criticism of
> Russia takes place, also does a good job of covering international news on
> station Mhztv, along with Peter Lavelle's "Crosstalk" on Sundays which like
> NFN offers more indepth analysis. I am just referring to the tv programs
> which challenge mainstream media. There are many links, blogs, etc. out
> there, not to mention some of the radio programs.  The only newspaper I
> have come across is the Public I published here locally.
> "Democracy Now" did cover the film "Kill the Messenger," and the actual
> events of the time, a couple weeks ago.
>
> If we think the food might be poisoned maybe we shouldn't eat it at all.
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 12:27:19 -0500
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] @ the Art: "Kill the Messenger" docdrama on natl
> security journalism martyr Gary Webb
> From: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
>
>
> By happy chance, I saw the movie "Kill the Messenger" at the Art last
> night. I say happy chance because I had never heard of the movie until I
> saw it listed on the marquee. I happened to be downtown and thought, what's
> at the Art?
>
> Folks who were active in the Central America solidarity movement will
> remember that Gary Webb, a journalist at the San Jose Mercury News, "broke
> the story" in mainstream media terms about how the CIA supported
> drug-runners during the Contra war and "looked the other way" (at least)
> while these drug-runners brought cocaine into the United States, fueling
> the "crack cocaine epidemic" in urban America.
>
> But for an audience today, the story of the movie that is to me so
> resonant and powerful is not that the CIA supported drug runners without a
> care to the consequences of that for urban Americans; that's old news. The
> story of the movie that is resonant and powerful today is how mainstream
> American journalism betrayed Gary Webb. Instead of following up the story,
> newspapers like the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the New
> York Times set out to destroy Gary Webb.
>
> This was a guy who was established in his career as an investigative
> journalist. If you look at his entry on Wikipedia, every year or so he got
> another award for investigative journalism for publicly exposing wrongdoing
> by powerful bad guys, for things he wrote alone or with others.
>
> He didn't set out to expose wrongdoing by powerful bad guys in the U.S.
> government. He stumbled across it. But having done so, he wouldn't accept
> the idea that exposing wrongdoing by powerful bad guys in the U.S.
> government was off-limits. He thought that was part of his job, too. It
> reminded me of the young prosecutor in the Costa-Gavras movie "Z," who
> didn't get the memo that the generals in the Greek military junta were
> off-limits.
>
> For his service to the public, mainstream American journalism destroyed
> Gary Webb's career and destroyed his life.
>
> I highly recommend seeing the movie, particularly for its portrayal of the
> Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. These are good images to keep in
> mind as we consume mainstream U.S. media. We have no alternative to
> consuming mainstream U.S. media, just like someone in prison has no
> alternative to eating the prison food. But if we think that the food might
> be poisoned, we should eat it very carefully.
>
> ===
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
>
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