Kurtz and Webb

The loathsome Howie Kurtz has some fun playing Kick-the-Corpse with reporter Gary Webb, who committed suicide at age 49. From the title of Kurtz's hit piece -- "Web of Deception" -- to the sneering suggestion Webb's report was nothing more than "allegations that supposedly linked the CIA to cocaine trafficking in America," Kurtz suggests that Webb's story had no substance. Kurtz's article is short on specifics, though, and doesn't identify a single specific untruth in Webb's reporting.

David Corn, who also criticized Webb, both then and now, points out that Webb was right on the basic charge if not in all particulars:

He was wrong on some important details but he was, in a way, closer to the truth than many of his establishment media critics who neglected the story of the real CIA-contra-cocaine connection. In 1998, a CIA inspector general's report acknowledged that the CIA had indeed worked with suspected drugrunners while supporting the contras. A Senator named John Kerry had investigated these links years earlier, and the media had mostly ignored his findings. After Webb published his articles, the media spent more time crushing Webb than pursuing the full story. It is only because of Webb's work--as flawed as it was--that the CIA IG inquiry happened. So, then, it is only because of Webb that US citizens have confirmation from the CIA that it partnered up with suspected drug traffickers in the just-say-no years and that the Reagan Administration, consumed with a desire to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, allied itself with drug thugs.

Kurtz's criticism of Webb is particularly laughable in light of his one-coat whitewash of the Washington Post's fictitious reporting of the invasion of Iraq. I'd accuse Kurtz of having a double standard, but I don't think he's got any standards at all.

Update (12/16): More on posthumous Webb-bashing here.