The Pros And Cons Of Whistleblowing

Bradley Manning had access to confidential files and record as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq. In the year 2010, Manning revealed confidential information to the website called WikiLeaks. The material contained various sensitive information such as videos of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables; and 500,000 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs. The majority of this information was published by the website WikiLeaks or the like. Bradley Manning’s case was somewhat complex because he didn’t initially express his reasoning for doing this and he appeared to have indiscriminately released numerous amounts of government records. Manning’s defense lawyer claimed that WikiLeaks is a valid media outlet, while the opposition claims that Manning was not a whistleblower leaking to a news outlet, but just a fame-seeker who released the information indiscriminately for his own purposes. ("What Bradley Manning Leaked.") Whether WikiLeaks is a valid reporting and journalistic media outlet or not, the case unfolded as the United States’ government began to scrutinize all media and information disclosures to the public.

What will the revolution of the 2000’s be? Governments have already been de-stabilized in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Who says that the protests won’t continue over to the United States? Protests in other countries happened because the systems were outdated and corruption was suspected. This is certainly true in the U.S., where the government’s inefficiency is being blamed on outdated technology. Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget admitted that the gap between the public and private sectors results in “billions of dollars in waste, slow and inadequate customer service and a lack of transparency about how dollars are spent,” this “lack of transparency” is exactly what Assange is fighting against. (3) WikiLeaks forces the United States government to think about the extreme secrecy it operates under and whether this is the best for its citizens. Without Assange the “lack of transparency” would only grow, making him a hero.

It has become extremely easy to transmit information almost instantly without any possible way to censor it quickly enough to keep it out of the public eye. Edward Snowden is an extreme in many examples of people using technology to civilly disobey. Whistleblowers however have created a serious new issue as to whether or not their actions go beyond civil disobedience into the realm of treason. People like Chelsea Manning, who released hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents illegally, could be seen fairly easily as a traitor rather than someone trying to do the right thing. The real question with whistleblowers is whether or not they have gone beyond disobeying the law to posing a clear and present danger to the American people. In the case of Edward Snowden, most would say no. In the case of Chelsea Manning, the results are fairly

Freedom of expression has almost always been and continues to be a defining characteristic of United States society and politics. The country was quite literally built on the idea of having basic freedoms in life. In fact, it was these same principles in which the United States operates around the world, beneath the guise of bringing the same values in other, less fortunate countries. Which only leads to emphasize the manner in which some so called freedoms are often challenged within the social and political spheres of the United States. Freedom of expression is not only an essential part of human rights but it is also important within the social and political institutions of the United States specifically. Therefore, not only are whistleblowers within their right when publishing material to a public forum, they are contributing to the public discourse on security, transparency, and civil liberties.

One month ago a major whistleblowing case hit the front lines. A man, associated with the VA’s hospital in Arizona came out about the poor healthcare provided to our nation’s veterans. This is no small ordeal because there were lines of veterans that had not received the operations they needed or even the cancer treatment they have been weighting for. The finger was pointed directly at the VA’s representative that was assigned by the president of the united states which means that president Obama himself heard about this incident shortly after being made known to the public. So much so that President Obama flew to Arizona to give a speech, apologizing to the veterans for the great disrespect that had been shown to them.

She also questions the legitimacy of the documents posted by WikiLeaks. Since the information was essentially stolen, she says, who can truly verify the truth behind the documents? Furthermore, Cupp strongly rejects the idea of WikiLeaks being a journalistic service because the best journalists, she says, always consider the consequences of the information they release, something WikiLeaks is “all too willing to compromise” (Cupp 1).

Other than the occasional muckraker whose journalism does not affect the public in a positive manner, muckraking is a high honor in the world of journalism. Unfortunately, there is also a negative to journalism and specifically journalism online. People will believe what they want to whether it is true or not. Alex Jones’: Infowars is a perfect example of this. This source of “news” is quite frankly just ridiculous, even so, people will get sucked in and believe it because it’s on the internet and does talk about real events happening in the world, however it’s a joke. It is dangerous to have sources like Infowars because we tend to be more interested in these types of website and we no longer recognize real reporting, the news that can actually impact our lives positively. People such as John Spargo, one of the founders of the socialist party in America, are successful muckrakers. Spargo lived in England but emigrated to America and brought with him a few socialist members. He became a controversial figure in the socialist party after he wrote his books “The Bitter Cry of Children” and “Underfed School Children” to expose the mistreatment of child laborers. By exposing this issue of child labor to the world, Spargo led the United States into many reforms on child labor and education,

The Internet is one of the most widespread ways to exchange data, and a website called WikiLeaks has received a great amount of attention from the knowledge it releases. The details they give are known to be confidential and provide society with an inside view on what is really happening behind of the closed doors of the federal government. The site is based on the “belief that a more transparent government will bring better consequences for all, and that leaking information has an inherent tendency toward greater justice” (Singer 465). WikiLeaks gives its readers a way to honestly know all the significant facts and records that are purposefully kept away from

Whistleblowers in the United States are individuals who expose organizations in illicit or dishonest activities. There are generally two views people have concerning whistleblowers: They are either considered snitches (performing acts of espionage) or they are considered martyrs (acting as a type of vigilante informing the public of wrongdoing). There have been many controversial cases in the past decade over informants such as Edward Snowden (exposing NSA data collection of citizens), Bradley Manning (responsible for leaking Iraqi military secrets), and Thomas Drake (NSA personnel leaking counterterrorism information and misconduct), some labeling them as traitors and others labeling them as saints. Some state that they weren’t

Jackson and Raftos (1997) referred to whistle blowing as an avenue of last resort. Employees find themselves in these situations when the authorities at their organisations have failed to take actions on reported issues affecting that organisation. Wimot (2000) likened whistleblowing to a spectrum. At one end of this spectrum whistleblowing would only cause minimal pain and scars on the stakeholders and organisation while on the other end is the worst scenario where the whistleblowing effects are turbulent and often experienced to be negative to all those involved (ibid).

In early 2013 a man by the name of Edward Joseph Snowden began leaking classified National Security Agency (NSA) documents to media outlets, which in turn ended up in public ears. These documents, mainly involving intelligence Snowden acquired while working as an NSA contractor, are mostly related to global surveillance programs run by the NSA. This has raised multiple ethical issues ranging from national security, information privacy and the ethics behind whistleblowing in general. The reach and impact of these leaks have gone global and have put in question the very government that protects us as well as the extent of the public’s rights on privacy. Various foreign

this is where the behavior is examined and changed by using reprimands or retraining. Finally,

While agree with you concerning the right of the New York Times to publish the documents they received, I differ with you concerning Mr. Ellsberg. I do not think Mr. Ellsberg had the right to steal the documents and provide them to the press. He was bound by the rules of protecting classified material, which prevents discussing classified information with others with the appropriate clearance level and the need-to-know. Even from the whistle-blowers stand point; he should not have removed classified documents. The only means I can see of him providing any information to the press would have been to provide basic information that the government was lying to the public via an anonymous tip.

Claimed by its founder to be a non-profit organization/website, Wikileaks was firstly launched in 2006. Some call it an open government group that enables public witnessing (Nayar, 2011; Rosewall & Warren, 2010), while others see it as a representation of a new type of “sovereignty in the global political and economy sphere” (Bodó, 2011, p. 3). The website uses the term “wiki” which was followed after Wikipedia due to its anonymous contributors and

Sharon Watkins earned her 15 minutes of fame the honest way, as the Enron employee who blew the lid off of then CEO Ken Lay's debauchery. But for every celebrated whistleblower, there are hundreds who remain in the shadows. And for good Samaritans who do tell their tale, the price they pay can be exorbitant.