Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers expose misdeeds. As a result, they usually experience considerable personal hardship. Minimally, most lose their jobs and friends from work and experience attempts to discredit them publicly. They usually act alone or as part of a small group and are past or present employees of the agency or company whose wrongdoing they bring to light. Whistleblowing takes various forms: reporting wrongdoing to superiors, exposing it to the public, or reporting it to law enforcement personnel. Whistleblowers also expose suppressed information that, if it had been known by decision makers, might have changed their decision. The decision makers can be voters, law enforcement personnel, legislators, superiors, consumers, patients, stockholders, citizens, or any other affected stakeholders.

Two of the most famous and influential whistle-blower cases occurred in the 1970s. Daniel Ellsberg released The Pentagon Papers to several newspapers. Later “Deep Throat,” now identified as W. Mark Felt, aided Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein in their breaking of the story of the break-in at the offices of Democratic National Committee in the Watergate, and other scandals within the Nixon administration. Together, these two cases contributed greatly to the downfall of President Richard Nixon. Ellsberg, a former government employee and consultant to the Department of Defense, released a government study of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia that became known as The Pentagon Papers. The study revealed considerable deception on the part of U.S. policymakers, particularly about major military involvement in Southeast Asia, long before the American public had been informed. W. Felt, a former associate director of the FBI, was an important source to Woodward and Bernstein, whose articles eventually led to prison terms for Nixon's White House chief of staff, chief counsel, and several other inner circle advisers.

There continue to be whistleblowers from within government. For the most part, however, they have not had the hard-copy, third-party data, which was so convincing with The Pentagon Papers, nor have they been associated with movements that could offer them support. Friends within the anti–Vietnam War movement sheltered Ellsberg as he moved nightly from house to house while daily releasing parts of the report to major U.S. newspapers. His connection to the anti-war movement allowed broad contact with the press—a crucial tactic, since the U.S. Department of Justice successfully obtained restraining orders on the New York Times and the Washington Post, the first newspapers to publish. Woodward and Bernstein protected Felt's identity while the Post allowed them to continue their investigation until the scandal was exposed.

Recently, additional security laws passed in the post-9/11 environment, public fear, and consolidation of news outlets have made it more difficult for reporters to protect their sources—a key ingredient in successful whistleblowing. In 2005–2006, newspapers published information on domestic spying and illegal behavior on the part of high-ranking officials in the Bush administration; reporters have been successfully pressured into revealing their sources.

In the 1990s, Jeffery Wigand, head of research and development at Brown and Williamson, became the first high-level insider to expose publicly the tobacco companies. His testimony turned the tide against them and ultimately they paid billions of dollars in settlements for the costs incurred by Medicaid and Medicare resulting from diseases associated with smoking.

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