Webbgate: Congrats to James DiEugenio

[Jim Hargrove]

Jim Di's major new review of the year's best political movie so far, Kill The Messenger, is up on Robert Parry's Consortium News, right here:

http://consortiumnews.com/2014/10/16/kil...h-telling/

My wife and I just finished watching the movie about an hour ago. It's about doomed San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb and his ground-breaking report on the involvement of our CIA in the 1980s crack epidemic in LA and other major American cities (in order to raise money and provide weapons to Ronald Reagan's South American Contras). Webb's death by two bullets to the head was ruled a suicide, but his real murder was at the hands of the Washington Post, the New York Times, the LA Times, and all the major network television newscasts. One establishment politician who deserves praise here is current U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who wraps up the movie by succinctly backing Gary Webb's original accusations.

Please stop reading this post and click on the link above ..... NOW!!!

Tomorrow, ask me about my personal involvement in this story.

[Tracy Riddle]

Great review by Jim, as always.

[Albert Doyle]

There's a sort of depressing futility to the fact that you can bring the evidence yet it will have no real affect on the numb-skulled public or corrupted government.


This really isn't a Kennedy topic.

[Scott Kaiser]

There's a sort of depressing futility to the fact that you can bring the evidence yet it will have no real affect on the numb-skulled public

Those words could never hold truer.

[Dawn Meredith]

Thanks Jim. Comprehensive review, as always.

Dawn

[Joseph McBride]

Excellent piece by Jim DiEugenio, thoroughly documented. Very solid information and analysis.

I read the book and saw the movie. The movie
is indeed impressive and powerful and doesn't seem to pull
punches. My only quibble (aside from the actress
playing the wife not being able to speak clearly) is that it says at the end
the MSM ignored the CIA's inspector general's
report because they were preoccupied with the Lewinsky
scandal. Clearly they would have ignored it anyway
because it exposed them as liars and accessories
to Webb's death.


I had wondered how Peter Landesman of PARKLAND
infamy would fare with his script of KILL THE MESSENGER.
They are so vastly different in quality and honesty that I wonder if this may
be a measure of just how much of a third-rail topic the assassination
is, even when compared with the CIA and drug trafficking, which
is incendiary enough.

[Tracy Riddle]

The whole Iran-Contra-cocaine/Mena/Enterprise story has entered the realm of Ancient History in a way that the JFK assassination hasn't yet. It now seems to be fairly safe to talk about. How many Americans even remember Iran Contra, or its counterpart the October Surprise? Or Nugan Hand, BCCI and the S&L scandal? They are all linked together, and just the tip of the iceberg.

It's discussed in the same manner as Watergate - third-rate conspiracy of clowns, and OMG there was a criminal/mobster element involved! Oh, who could have imagined such a thing? ::

It's also easy for mainstream-liberal historians and academics to talk about wrongdoing during the Reagan/Nixon years, but they still don't want to shine a light on Democratic Presidents (which is why the Clintons' involvement in Mena part of the Enterprise is still a "conspiracy theory"). Earl Warren's stamp of approval on the JFK story ensured that a lot of liberals would defend it to their graves.

[Magda Hassan]

The whole Iran-Contra-cocaine/Mena/Enterprise story has entered the realm of Ancient History in a way that the JFK assassination hasn't yet. It now seems to be fairly safe to talk about. How many Americans even remember Iran Contra, or its counterpart the October Surprise? Or Nugan Hand, BCCI and the S&L scandal? They are all linked together, and just the tip of the iceberg.

It's discussed in the same manner as Watergate - third-rate conspiracy of clowns, and OMG there was a criminal/mobster element involved! Oh, who could have imagined such a thing? ::

It's also easy for mainstream-liberal historians and academics to talk about wrongdoing during the Reagan/Nixon years, but they still don't want to shine a light on Democratic Presidents (which is why the Clintons' involvement in Mena part of the Enterprise is still a "conspiracy theory"). Earl Warren's stamp of approval on the JFK story ensured that a lot of liberals would defend it to their graves.

And the show goes on. There is no attempt by the media to create a new narrative with the new facts.

[Albert Doyle]

The cowardly Washington Post responded with yet another hit piece against Gary Webb:



http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/g...story.html



I saw the movie today. It's great and should be seen by everyone. I might have personally done it differently by accenting the Central American landscape and Contra aspects big screen Oliver Stone style. I would have added more dirty CIA scenes and backroom targeting of Webb. I suspect they didn't do that because the Gary Webb character might not carry such a high load screenplay. But the real reason was probably budget. They kept it to a Gary Webb personal shoebox where they kept it close to Webb, his family, and emotions. This method did have the effect of accenting the brutal victimization of Webb and how he was targeted by not only CIA but the system as well. By keeping it centered around Webb it amplified the morbid hopelessness he was subjected to and made palpable what he himself was personally going through. This aspect is good because it makes the cowards who betrayed and murdered Webb get a good taste of what they did.

I thought the movie would have supported a bigger and better production, however in the car going home I realized that this trim and efficient version had flown under the radar threading hill and dale finding its target. There was sort of an electro-chemical reaction in my chest separate from the normal circuits of intellect that told me this movie cruise missile had made a low order detonation precisely on its target and scored an important victory against those at whom it was aimed.


.

[Jim DiEugenio]

The budget for the film was only five million. It was Renner's first production.

They were not going to risk a huge budget on a guy's first effort.

Thanks to everyone for noticing my review, especially Jim.

The parallel, as I tried to show, was that anytime anyone delves into these radioactive subjects which are off limits, they get destroyed.

ANd even now that the MSM is dying, and the Post sold for a paltry 250 M, as ALbert pointed out, they still cannot admit they were wrong.

But I know why the Post did it, because the film shows them interacting with CIA. WHICH WAS TRUE!

THey don't like anyone knowing that though.

Its a really good film that is getting good word of mouth. It will break wide this week and wider next week.

Everyone should see it and pass the word around as much as you can. Renner deserves kudos. And an Oscar nod.