Former Sacramento Journalist's Story Gets Hollywood Ending In 'Kill The Messenger'

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A one-time Sacramento investigative journalist's scandalous report on the Central Intelligence Agency that led to a backlash and blacklisting is now getting a Hollywood ending.

Former Sacramento journalist Gary Webb's family shared old photos around the kitchen table. Now they are preparing for the movie premiere that will star Jeremy Renner as their late father and husband.

The movie "Kill the Messenger" recounts Webb's highly publicized 1996 report in the San Jose Mercury News that tied the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contras to drug sales in Los Angeles.

Webb's son remembers going to a rally in south-central Los Angeles with his dad.

The story went viral in an age when the Internet was just beginning, garnering a million hits a day.

Then suddenly Webb became blacklisted. Competing papers discredited his report, the Mercury News transferred Webb, and he was ultimately left unemployed.

Webb committed suicide in 2004.

Now a man who spent his career working to uncover injustice is getting his own Hollywood ending.