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---
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Media
- United_States
- 1990s
- Dark_Alliance_Investigation
summary: The San Jose Mercury News published the Dark Alliance series in August 1996, using the Internet to share source documents with the public in an unprecedented act of journalistic transparency.
---
The San Jose Mercury News is a newspaper based in [[San Jose|San Jose, California]], where [[Gary Webb]] worked as an investigative reporter and published the [[Dark Alliance]] series in August 1996.[^1]
### Publication of Dark Alliance
The Mercury News published the four-part "Dark Alliance" series beginning August 18, 1996. Executive editor [[Jerry Ceppos]] initially defended the series, firing off a blistering letter to the [[Washington Post]] and posting a memo on the staff bulletin board declaring "we strongly support the conclusions the series drew." Webb received a $500 bonus check and a note from Ceppos: "Remarkable series!"[^2]
### Web Innovation
The Mercury News used its Web site, Mercury Center, to post the series with full-color animated maps, uncut source documents, undercover [[DEA]] tapes, grand jury testimony, and a bibliography. The Web page received over one million hits. Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia wrote: "The unlimited space of the Web allowed the Mercury News to move forward into a whole new kind of journalism."[^2]
### Retraction
In May 1997, Ceppos published a column describing "shortcomings" in the series, effectively killing the investigation. The [[New York Times]] splashed the apology on its front page. The Mercury News then transferred Webb to the Cupertino bureau and suppressed four follow-up stories. Webb quit in November 1997.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue: "It was like they didn't want to know"
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 27: "A very difficult decision"