When the San Jose Mercury News implied that the CIA had helped the Nicaraguan contras smuggle cocaine into the United States to fund their covert war during the 1980s, the prestige press scrambled to debunk the three-part investigative series, “Dark Alliance.” However, if the Mercury News was too quick to blame the CIA, its critics have been too quick to pounce on the story's shortcomings. Coverage of the Nicaraguan drug story since 1984 by five major daily newspapers reveals a dearth of serious investigative reporting.
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