NOTE: The San Jose Mercury News series that started all the discussion about CIA
involvement in cocaine trafficking can be found at:
http://www.sjmercury.com/drugs/

Journalists honor MN editor
Ethics award cites Ceppos' column on "Dark Alliance" series

BY TRACY SEIPEL
Mercury News staff writer

The executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News on Monday was named one of the
first recipients of the national Ethics in Journalism Award of the Society of
Professional Journalists.

Jerry Ceppos was recognized for his May 11 column in which he acknowledged
several shortcomings of a controversial Mercury News series called "Dark
Alliance."

The award, presented for the first time this year at the group's annual
convention in Denver, honors those who "demonstrated outstanding decisionmaking
and commitment to ensuring the highest standard of ethical conduct."

The Mercury News series, published in August 1996, suggested a direct connection
between the start of the nation's "crack" epidemic and efforts to raise money in
the 1980s for a CIAorganized rebel force in Nicaragua known as the Contras. It
also strongly suggested highlevel CIA knowledge of that connection.

The series galvanized AfricanAmericans, who believed their neighborhoods had
been exploited in the crack epidemic, and led to Senate hearings and two ongoing
federal investigations. It also prompted unequivocal denials from U.S. officials
and scrupulous reexamination and criticism by other major newspapers.

In his review of the series, Ceppos acknowledged some ambiguities.

"In such complex situations, good journalism requires us . . . to deal in the
grays, the ambiguities, of life. I believe that we should have done better in
presenting those gray areas," Ceppos wrote in his column. "There is evidence to
support the specific assertions and conclusions of our series as well as
conflicting evidence on many points." He concluded that the series did not meet
the newspaper's standards.

Steve Geimann, outgoing president of the Society of Professional Journalists,
said Ceppos' column provides "a living example of the philosophy (that) some
tough decisions must be shared with the public."

Said Ceppos after receiving the award: "Part of the purpose of the column was to
illuminate the journalistic process, and part of it was to concede some major
flaws in our series."

"I hope this recognition will convince journalists once and for all that it is a
good thing to open our closed doors, even if we haven't done that historically,
and even if we admit imperfections. . . . We're always telling government
officials that voters would trust them more if they were more open. The same
very much applies to us."

Other honorees were Carol Marin, a news anchor for NBCowned WMAQTV in Chicago,
who in protest quit her job in early May, days before the start of talkshow
host Jerry Springer's brief tenure as a news commentator at that station; and M.
Hollis Curl, editor and publisher of the weekly Wilcox Progressive Era in
Camden, Ala., who campaigned in editorials for the reopening of a ferry that
linked Camden with the neighboring, predominantly black community.

The Northern California chapter of the SPJ, based in San Francisco, was also
honored as the outstanding large chapter of the year. Peter Sussman, a former
San Francisco Chronicle editor, won an outstanding professional chapter member
award.