Posted 12:38 PM by Scoobie Davis

Infuriating
If you want to see just one example of the depravity of the Washington press corps, then read Robert Parry's article on the media hounding and pillorying of Gary Webb who was behind the explosive stories that uncovered the contra-cocaine scandal. To no surprise, the Moonie Times and Howard Kurtz were in on the act:

When black leaders began demanding a full investigation of these charges, the Washington news media began circling the wagons.

It fell to Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s right-wing Washington Times to begin the counterattack against Webb’s series. The Washington Times turned to some former CIA officials, who participated in the contra war, to refute the drug charges.

But – in a pattern that would repeat itself on other issues in the following years – the Washington Post and other mainstream newspapers quickly lined up behind the conservative news media. On Oct. 4, 1996, the Washington Post published a front-page article knocking down Webb’s story. . .

Influential Post media critic Howard Kurtz mocked Webb for saying in a book proposal that he would explore the possibility that the contra war was primarily a business to its participants. “Oliver Stone, check your voice mail,” Kurtz chortled. [Washington Post, Oct. 28, 1996]