by Nick Schou
Managing Editor David Yarnold, who stopped reading Webb’s story halfway through the editing process, rose to become executive editor, then editor of the paper’s opinion section. He left the Mercury News in 2005 and is now director of an environmental organization in New York City. Paul Van Slambrouck, who replaced Yarnold on the story, was promoted to a corporate position with Knight Ridder before becoming editor of the Christian Science Monitor. In 2003, the Monitor published a story based on forged documents accusing George Galloway, a left-wing member of the British parliament, of accepting millions of dollars from Saddam Hussein during the 1990s. After issuing a formal apology to Galloway, Van Slambrouck stepped down as editor and became a San Francisco-based correspondent for the paper.
In 1997, Jerry Ceppos received the Society of Professional Journalists’ Ethics in Journalism award for publishing his mea culpa about “Dark Alliance.” Two years later, he left the Mercury News to become vice president for news at Knight Ridder. Ceppos celebrated his final day in journalism on August 31, 2005, taking an early retirement to enjoy his vineyard in Saratoga.
Had he lived, Gary Webb would have turned fifty years old that day. Two weeks later, his family—Sue, Anita, Kurt, Ian, Eric, and Christine—marked Webb’s birthday by driving to Santa Cruz Bay. With the Rolling Stones song, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” blaring from a boom box, they obeyed his final wish—and let him bodysurf for eternity.
They tossed his ashes into the crashing waves of the Pacific.
AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
KILL THE MESSENGER shares its title with a December 2004 obituary I wrote about Gary Webb for OC Weekly. As I wrote at the time, I knew Gary through his “Dark Alliance” story. Shortly after I published a follow-up article to his 1996 San Jose Mercury News series, Webb called me to thank me for advancing his reporting. Over the next several years, I wrote numerous investigative stories concerning members of the drug ring he exposed; Webb used much of the material I uncovered in his 1998 book, Dark Alliance. (Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes attributed to Webb come from his book).
I met Webb just once, during his 1998 book tour, but kept in touch with him until shortly before his death. I should also point out that in 1993, I worked for three months as an intern for David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, who as this book shows, both criticized and defended Webb’s reporting.
Kill the Messenger would not have been possible without the cooperation of many people, but especially Webb’s family: Susan, Ian, Kurt, and Anita. I would also like to thank everyone else who spoke to me for this project—Webb’s friends, colleagues, supporters, and particularly his detractors, who did so despite their knowledge that my book entailed a serious critique of their coverage of the “Dark Alliance” scandal: Tom Andrzejewski, Jeremy Bigwood, Jack Blum, Walt Bogdanich, Pete Carey, Gary Clark, Alexander Cockburn, Marc Cooper, David Corn, Mike Crosby, Rex Davenport, Tom Dresslar, Dawn Garcia, Tim Golden, Lee Gomes, Scott Herhold, Martha Honey, Jesse Katz, Chris Knap, Peter Kornbluh, Pamela Kramer, Jonathan Krim, Howard Kurtz, Tom Loftus, Steve Luttner, Joe Madison, Doyle McManus, Paul Moreira, Annie Nocenti, Bob Parry, Walter Pincus, Bert Robinson, Mike Ruppert, Adam Saytanides, Tom Scheffey, Mary Anne Sharkey, Dan Simon, Tom Suddes, Vance Trimble, Sanho Tree, Tom Walsh, Leo Wolinsky, and Greg Wolf.
I’d also like to thank my former editor at OC Weekly, Will Swaim, who tutored me as a writer and investigative reporter for the past decade, and who encouraged me in this project. Jesse Fenichel and my wife Claudia Schou provided invaluable support by reading early drafts of this manuscript, and Charles Bowden generously allowed me use of his unpublished notes from his 1998 interview with Webb for Esquire Magazine.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Mike Davis at the University of California, Irvine, who inspired me to write this book and helped me find a publisher, and to my editors, Ruth Baldwin and Carl Bromley, for believing in this story and trusting in my ability to do it justice. Special thanks to Peter Landesman, Naomi Despres, Scott Stuber, Jeremy Renner and his producing partner at The Combine, Don Handfield, Michael Cuesta, and everyone at Focus Features who helped make the filming of this book possible. More than anything else, Kill the Messenger owes its origin to a talented journalist who tragically, will never read it. “From one newsman to another—keep the faith,” Webb once told me. I only wish that somehow he had been able to do the same.
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