CREW: Who Counts As a Whisteblower?
Jan 02, 2014 - Daniel Schuman
Who Counts As a Whisteblower?
www.citizensforethics.org/blog/entry/who-counts-as-a-whisteblower-edward-snowden-nsa-spying
Disclosures about the National Security Administration’s (NSA) surveillance programs have prompted a discussion on whether the person who released that information, Edward Snowden, could properly be deemed a whistleblower. The word whistleblower is important because it frames how we think of him and what should become of him.
By definition, whistleblowers are people who “expose wrongdoing within an organization in the hope of stopping it.” The term may be contrasted with leakers, defined as “surreptitious informants” and carrying the connotation of self-interested or sinister motivations. There can be an overlap between the terms, best exemplified by Watergate’s deep throat, FBI Associate Director Mark Felt, who shed light on massive government wrongdoing but did so in part out of petty motivations.
Much meaning is packed into the concept of whistleblower, which is an umbrella term that includes several kinds of whistleblowing. Illuminating these distinctions may help refine our instincts about Snowden, and whistleblowers generally.
The most commonly-understood type of whistleblower is someone who exposes graft, self-dealing, or other malfeasance. For example, raising the alarm on a government bureaucrat who solicits bribes is a form of whistleblowing. The same is true for reporting a government contracting official who steers agreements to a preferred vendor in return for a kickback. There is wide consensus this illegal and immoral behavior should be punished and publicly exposed. For ease of reference, let us call this corruption whistleblowing.
A second kind of whistleblowing occurs when .........
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