An Error Admitted
The San Jose Mercury News made a courageous gesture on Sunday
when it admitted that articles charging the CIA with complicity in the
drug trade had been poorly written and edited and misleadingly
packaged. The executive editor, Jerry Ceppos, told readers that the
articles had fallen short of the paper's standards at every step along the
way. His candor and selfcriticism set a high standard for cases in which
journalists make egregious errors.
Last fall the Mercury News published an inflammatory and
inadequately substantiated series of articles suggesting that the CIA
abetted the crack epidemic in the 1980s by allowing Nicaraguan
dealers to push the drug in America's inner cities. The goal, the series
said, was to help finance the CIAbacked Contra rebels then fighting
the government.
There was little hard evidence to support these claims. Even so, the
series was suggestively entitled "Dark Alliance: The Story Behina the
Crack Explosion," and appeared with a logo showing a man smoking
crack superimposed over the CIA insignia. The material, which spread
quickly with the help of the paper's Web site, sparked outrage from
elected officials and provoked investigations in Congress and at the
CIA. After other newspapers cast doubt on the articles, Mercury News
editors and reporters began an extensive internal investigation.
The series failed to include available evidence contradicting the
assertion of CIA complicity. "Although members of the drug ring met
with Contra leaders paid by the CIA and Webb believes the relationship
with the CIA was a tight one," Mr. Ceppos wrote, "I feel that we did
not have proof that top CIA officials knew of the relationship."
The Mercury News experience dictates caution and care in sensitive
articles, but it should not discourage investigative projects. On other
such pieces, the newspaper has done solid work in the past, and it
should not shrink from trying again. At a time when lifestyle and
personality articles command ever greater space, efforts to uncover
government and private sector misconduct are all the more essential.
Newspapers are among the few institutions in America with the
resources and commitment needed to expose betrayals of the public
trust.

THE NEW YORK TIMES.

whitewash