Romenesko

Los Angeles Times
Gary Webb's series linking the CIA and Nicaragua's Contras to the crack cocaine epidemic in South Los Angeles was initially ignored by the nation's largest papers, notes Nick Shou. "What followed was one of the most bizarre, unseemly and ultimately tragic scandals in the annals of American journalism, one in which top news organizations closed ranks to debunk claims Webb never made, ridicule assertions that turned out to be true and ignore corroborating evidence when it came to light." Webb committed suicide in 2004.