"[T]he sonofabitching thief is made a national hero and is going to get off on a mistrial, and the New York Times gets a Pulitzer Prize for stealing documents...What in the name of God have we come to?" --President Richard Nixon (Oval Office discussion, May 11, 1973)
Do you know what whistleblowing is? I did not before this blog post, researching and learning about everything I could in an indecently short amount of time. As political unrest continues in today's society, it can be hard to look for the light at the end of the tunnel, but thanks to people who whistleblow, we can recognize a sliver of justice within the system.
Whistleblowing is the act of exposing or creating clarity on something that involves illegal or malicious acts, typically involving individuals or groups of people in a position of power. People whistleblow in many ways, in an attempt to use the system to their benefit and reveal secrets that can become dangerous to citizens. I feel there are just as many pros as there are cons to actually performing whistleblowing, but if there is something that can be reported, you should. Especially if the whistleblowing involves the government. The three most popular types of whistleblowing are Policy corruption, fraud, and abuse of power. In some cases, the whistleblower themselves can get in a lot of trouble, as much as they can be completely safe and honored. It is a difficult thing to decide, whether someone would want to whistleblow or not, so it's important to be educated on existing events.
I want to start by mentioning Daniel Ellsberg. He was an important spark to the flame that was whistleblowing, lighting up American citizens' hearts to the power they could have. In 1964, when Daniel started working for the Department of Defense, he was tasked to help further efforts in the war. We were currently in Vietnam, fighting a war many people did not think was smart or winnable, and a waste of our military's efforts. After assessing the situation through the field, he became one of the Americans with that view, and wanted this war to come to an end. Soon after getting ahold of documents for the next efforts in the war the US would perform, he photocopied the secrets within the pages and sent them to the Washington Post, The New York Times, and many more popular publishing companies. He attempted congress at first., but it did nothing. This moment was important as the whistleblowing act became more and more chivalrous, despite his sentence to 115 years in prison under the Espionage Act, one of the dangerous parts of whistleblowing which can label you as a spy and put you in jail. This is the biggest con to whistleblowing, as the government will not want to side with you once you reveal their illicit behaviors. Thankfully for Ellsberg, further investigation revealed more illegal information involving wiretapping and robbery.
This was only the beginning, as Daniels' experience was closely tied with the Deepthroat and Edward Snowden. Mark Felt, the anonymous whistleblower for Watergate, which was a multitude of scandals involving the Nixon administration, one of the biggest being the burglary of the DNC headquarters in order to find dirt on people. Things like federal wiretapping, conspiracy, and robbery left the group in shambles and ultimately led Nixon to resign. Using the Vanity Fair Magazine, Felt wrote an entry exposing the leads for the Watergate situation, and as he was anonymous for the time being, he was known as Deep Throat. Justice was definitely served in this case, as he also received an award for the whistleblowing event.
Then, Edward Snowden. As a former CIA agent who was promoted to an NSA contractor, and quickly had an ethical dilemma on his hands. Things regarding data leaks, the dark web, and wiretapping were rotated within the works of the NSA and the Five Eyes, and although he tried to reveal concern within the organization, he was ignored. Snowden revealed many private documents to various journalists, leaving a large amount of these exposing stories to the larger media companies to write about. As the story usually goes, he was charged with espionage, but in his condition he was able to quickly evade his sentence by fleeing to Russia, where Putin excused him under some certain conditions.
As you can see, our government doesn't always want the best for us. Like ever. But despite government whistleblowing, these issues are present in workplaces as well. It is common for bigger companies and corporations to partake in similar activities, leaving a workplace untrustworthy and dangerous in different ways. Whistleblowing is just one of the ways you can bring justice to you and those around you. If you were to whistleblow in any form, there are things you should keep in mind;
-you should ensure that what you are exposing is actually true
-remember what's worth whistleblowing and should be considered for exposing
-keep in mind your role as a witness and do not spy
-try and raise concern around you before you act
Whistleblowing - Understanding the Issues and Risks - Mind Toolsmindtools.comhttps://www.mindtools.com › whistleblowinghttps://americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/john-kiriakou/
https://whistleblower.org/bio-john-kiriakou/
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