The CIA, the MSM and the politics of drugs, guns, money and the news

Since then we have had journalists, activists, researchers, whistle blowers and authors such as Jonathan Kwitny and Peter Dale Scott who have documented in well-researched detail the criminal corruption that prevails at the highest levels of the U.S. government. This is especially the case with the drug business.

And for those looking for further corroboration of Webb's journalistic integrity and by extrapolation, the venal, self-serving and vindictive nature of the corporate media, you need go no further than read Nick Schou's Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb. Along with being a fitting tribute to the man and an equally fitting coda to his legacy, it is a savage indictment of America's major news organizations, most of whom still purport to be bastions of fair and balanced reportage in an age when we need such more than ever.

We can all but hope the film does justice to Webb's story and its release generates a resurgence of public interest in the Contra-cocaine scandal specifically, and one hopes, in the less savoury aspects of the operational side of the frequently criminal institution that is the CIA. Plus, something like people demanding more responsible, unbiased, ethical, insightful and fearless news-gathering and analysis from the corporate media.

Rupert Murdoch, are you listening old son? Or are you still hacking peoples' phones and bribing public officials to get the scoop on what's going down in order to keep feeding us hapless saps the news that you and your ilk want us to hear rather than the news we need to hear?