Jules and the CNN pix

[Doug Millison]

I've followed the Webb affair with some interest and attention, and I've
seen no substantial criticism of his investigation. SJ Merc's executive
editor Ceppos' criticisms centered on the way Webb's story was edited (by
other SJM editors) and presented. Other establishment papers tried their
best to call the series into question -- many credible observers have noted
that these same news organizations essentially ignored substantial coverage
of the story that Webb uncovered (Webb built on the work of a Newsweek
journalist back in the mid-1980s, I forget his name but he's been hovering
at the edges of the Gary Webb controversey, who was later fired by Newsweek
for trying to follow up the CIA-Contra-cocaine at that time).

Along these lines, it would be fun to see what Pynchon (or other capable
pomo author) might do with a fiction centered on the Panama Canal (as M&D
centers on it's eponymous topographical construct), and the tangle of
historical, philosophical, and metaphysical material that would surface and
interact to illuminate the 20th century.

Re your comment about investigative journalists being sued, I'd say it's
quite a bit more common for tabloid journalists and organizations to be
sued than it is for serious investigative journalists to wind up in court,
truth being the standard defense against slander or libel. Even in the
notorious, recent Food Lion case (where the TV journalists went in and took
pictures of unsanitary practices), the judge told the jury to assume as
true the facts of the story as reported by the journalists -- at issue in
the case was the legality of the journalists lying to get the story (decent
coverage of this particular story and larger issues of journalistic ethics
at the American Journalism Review's site,
http://www.newslink.org/ajrlyinggame.html).

Cordially,
Doug




At 12:15 PM 6/12/97, Peter Giordano wrote:
>Doug said:
>[a lot of stuff deleted]
>>My point here is not to embark on another conspiracy discussion but rather
>>to add some detail and nuance to the discussion of journalism that's come
>>up around the Pynchon-CNN story. Within a braodcast and publishing
>>establishment that is often compromised by advertiser and corporate support
>>and sometimes crippled by the lack of professionalism or ethical lapses of
>>its practitioners, as in the case of Gary Webb (and many other fine
>>journalists whose work would be tarred by the brush some p-listers wield so
>>freely) good journalistic work gets done, and then is sometimes swallowed
>>up or twisted or actively erased by the powers that be.
>>
>>This interplay of individual vs corporate ethics is not altogether foreign
>>to Pynchon's novels, of course.
>
>I say:
>Doug raises the story of Gary Webb - I find this story to be quite
>interesting and
>have know idea about the merits of his journalistic worth - A superficial
>glance
>at the facts indicates that there may be some trouble there - But I'd
>venture to guess
>that a lot of investigative reports wind up getting sued - Is Gary Webb a
>"fine journalist"?
>I have know idea - I do know that the articles on the CIA made compelling
>reading - I
>would not venture to compare the kind of reporting done by CNN or most hard
>news journalists with the kind of tabliod or fluff pieces sometimes done
>(like the
>piece on Pynchon)
>
>It was not my intention to tar any journalists when I argued that CNN has a
>bad record on
>hoaxes - I think that a vast news department like CNN has a lot of different
>parts and
>the segment likely to fall for the likes of Joey Skaggs (who could be a
>Pynchon character
>himself) is the segment of CNN which deals with fluff and tabloid crap - It
>is a matter
>of public record that CNN (and other networks) has broadcast information
>which turned
>out to be false or a hoax - Sometimes news organizations get important news
>wrong but
>usually they are very good about fixing it - Sometimes news organizations
>fall for
>hoaxes but don't we all
>
>
>Peter Giordano
>Williams College
>Williamstown, MA

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