When did Robert Parry become a liar and conspiracy theorist? [View all]

[Karmadillo]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Autumn (a host of the General Discussion forum).

I had always thought Robert Parry was a rather admirable figure. There's the October Surprise, the Iran-Contra work, the willingness to back Gary Webb when so many of the best journalists kept their silence and cashed their checks. But I've learned from the wisdom of DU juries and posters that my admiration has apparently been misplaced. No longer an award-winning investigative journalist, Parry is now just a liar and a conspiracy theorist. Who would have believed such a development? I can't help but wonder what it was that led to his decline.

See how well he started out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Parry_%28journalist%29

Robert Parry (born June 24, 1949) is an American investigative journalist best known for his role in covering the Iran-Contra affair for the Associated Press (AP) and Newsweek, including breaking the Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare (CIA manual provided to the Nicaraguan contras) and the CIA and Contras cocaine trafficking in the US scandal in 1985. He was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984. He has been the editor of Consortium News since 1995.

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In August 1990 PBS' Frontline asked Parry to work on the October Surprise conspiracy theory,[1] leading to Parry making several documentaries for the program,[6][7][8] broadcast in 1991 and 1992. He continued to pursue it after a Congressional investigation had concluded the story was untrue, turning his Frontline research into a book published in 1993,[9] and in 1994 he unearthed "a treasure-trove of government documents" supporting the theory,[6] "showing that the [Congressional] task force suppressed incriminating CIA testimony and excluded evidence of big-money links between wealthy Republicans and Carter's Iranian intermediary, Cyrus Hashemi".[3] In 1996 Salon.com wrote about his work on the theory, saying that "his continuing quest to unearth the facts of the alleged October Surprise has made him persona non grata among those who worship at the altar of conventional wisdom."[6]

When journalist Gary Webb published his newspaper series Dark Alliance in 1996 alleging that the Reagan administration had allowed the Contras to smuggle cocaine into the US to make money for their efforts, Parry supported Webb amidst heavy criticism from the media.[10]

Even during the not too distant George W. Bush years, Parry was seen around here as someone with a pretty reliable insight into reality. His work was posted all the time.

But his reliability, apparently, is now water under the bridge. While he might once have been a worthwhile, maybe even praiseworthy source, he is now fatally discredited. Simply posting one of his articles can get one a ding from one of our DU juries. What happened? What led Parry down the path to the dark side? Money? Power? Sex? Does anyone have the answer to the mystery of how one who had risen so high in the estimation of progressives could fall so far so fast?