Blog Post #12: Class Discussion on Whistleblowers

Overview of Whistleblowers

During class, we discussed the idea of whistleblowers and their prevalence in our society. In my years past, I have thought about whistleblowers being essentially bodyguards and serving as a positive benefit to our society, but my knowledge and opinion on them changed drastically after having a whole class discussion about. The official term of a whistleblower is "Someone who works in the government that leaks the information to the public." This act has a correlation with the Espionage Act which was enacted during World War I as an act that used to "punish acts of interference with foreign relations." Its crazy to think that these are literally government employees leaking information to everybody else. With politics changing by the minute it seems in today's society, there are many controversies on the government and how much one can trust it in today's world. Oftentimes, the government tries to manipulate U.S. citizens and control us, but their counterargument is that they mean well and that they need to be in charge of us, because otherwise our world would fall into shambles. Because of the increased presence of technology and media in our society today, whistleblowers are becoming a more prominent source. Mix that in with all the current affair issues happening worldwide and you have a lot of controversial encounters that occurring every day to the point where it is affecting the lives of innocent individuals. During this blog post, I will discuss various real-life examples of bad whistleblowers, the pros & cons of having them in our society, and why whistleblowers still exist today.

Julian Assange

Julian Assange is a famous example that was discussed in class when it come to real life whistleblower experiences. Assange, born in Townsville, Queensland, Australia began using WikiLeaks in 2006, a website that was all about gathering and exposing information on an international scale. He actually started his hacking spree well before WikiLeaks as shortly after he was gifted with his first computer at the age of 16, he developed a habit and talent for breaking into computer systems. Of course in the 1990s, computers were really just starting to be introduced and commonly used in society, so for Assange he was well ahead of the game when it came to knowing everything that there was needed to know about technology and computer operations. Nowadays, there are many hackers that try and hurt people online, but for Assange he essentially served as the pioneer for a term that no kind-hearted human being should EVER want to be called. In 1991, Assange broke into a telecommunications company called Nortel. He would end up being charged for more than 30 counts of hacking in Australia! However, instead of being locked up for what he did, he only received a fine. As to whether or not he only received such little punishment because of his young age that's up for question. Of course, the 1990s were a much different era, and if that same kind of encounter were to happen nowadays especially with how many people are actively using technology on an everyday basis, it is very likely that the consequences would have been a lot different. Assange also did not grow up in the most stable conditions as a child. He lived with his single mother and went to 37 different schools as a kid. 37!!! Are you kidding me?! Imagine going to 37 different schools where you have to get adjusted and make new friends 37 different times. That's a tough and nearly impossible task to put on anyone regardless of how much of a social butterfly they are. Still, that is not to make an excuse for what Assange did, but that explains as to why computer hacking became his thing to do. With no consistent friend group nor social life, he had all the time in the world to come up with new methods of computer hacking and became known for it at an early age. So instead of playing sports, going to parties, going on dates and all that teenage/young adult stuff, Assange elected to get his source of entertainment and become widely known by people in a different route... by hacking computers and being known as quite the computer hacker. 

Assange, a clear love of computers and software would end up wanting to do it as a full-time career and even majored in Mathematics at the University of Melbourne. He would eventually leave the university for moral reasons and never ended up returning to finish his degree. Assange would then see success using the site WikiLeaks and his posting of videos that leaked all these kinds of information worldwide helped action and consequences be placed on bad things that were happening around the world from issues in Afghanistan to releasing the 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables. Because of this, Assange would gain more and more recognition and fame which led to him being voted as TIME Magazine's 2010 Person of the Year where he received over 382,000 votes. Second place finisher, Recep Tayyip Ergodan only received slightly above 148,000 votes, so it was an easy win for Assange. However, shortly after his award was one, Assange began dealing with a great deal of sexual assault allegations and later released a series of emails from Hilary Clinton during the 2016 election. Its one thing to leak information on a general issue in the world, but its a whole another thing to be releasing confidential information on a presidential candidate. However, one must always be careful of any leaks coming out and be careful of any emails or text messages that are sent because as discussed during my privacy blog, there is NO such thing as privacy in our society today. Eventually, Assange's ability to roam free and live life with no official consequences ended in 2019 when he was charged for helping Chelsea Manning for breaking into a classified government computer at the pentagon. The partnership between Assange and Manning had existed since 2010, and eventually was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail all the way back in 2012, when he found refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy. All of this goes to show that a whistleblower isn't always going to be a good person. Assange had a large history of online hacking and doing bad when it came to leak stuff on the internet, so it was only a matter of time before he would get caught and punished, but it even took law enforcement some time to figure out how to deal with this situation because this was really the first time anyone has ever used technology in this kind of context.

Pros of Whistleblowers

Being a whistleblower isn't easy, but if worked as one correctly then it can serve as a huge benefit. The first and obvious pro of whistleblowers is that they are able to make acts public so a certain violator can be held accountable for their disruptive and harmful actions to a business or government. No nation wants bad people roaming around severely affecting the general public and these whistleblowers have the chance to put on their superhero hats and help the workforce be more suited for a safer and more secure setup where private and/or false information isn't being leaked on a consistent basis. This leads into the next pro which is all about protection and assuring any kind of retaliatory acts in a professional workplace will lead to something across the lines of reduced benefits, wages or complete termination. Sometimes an employee or group is not what they seem to be and having whistleblowers monitor that assures that any problems will be resolved in a fashionable manner. Whistleblowers don't even have to be trained, someone who is sharing information about one of their co-workers causing harm in their workplace can be considered as a whistleblowers. Therefore, a whistleblower can be a hero if they provide the right kind of information, but they can also be a zero if they don't which I'll touch more elaborately on during the cons section of whistleblowers. When it comes to the more serious cases that are diplomatic issues that affect the government however, there are Whistleblower Programs like the SEC and CFTC that actually provide financial rewards to any whistleblowers who accurately provide covered fraudulent misconduct. This means, if you are someone who tells the truth on one of these harmful situations happening, then you get money in return for it, just like if you help locate a missing or wanted person. It's a great win win situation for both whistleblowers and law enforcement to help address a corruption in our society, so when its executed proficiently, everybody is happy. Generally speaking, a successful whistleblower will be able to be awarded between 15-30% of the money that the government is able to retrieve. Extra information is always needed and can help expose any bad people committing harmful actions out in the world.

Listed below are a couple of more pros to being a whistleblower... 

• Make sure wrongdoers are not receiving any rewards that they don't deserve
• Have the chance to receive compensation and trust from the government
• Helps you and people around you stay safe from any danger and/or legal trouble

Cons of Whistleblowers

It takes a lot of time and effort to move forward with the process of being a whistleblower and sharing and explaining the information, so it is not a position that is suited for a rather lackadaisical person. The fact that there is a direct involvement with the government as a whistleblower causes for a lot of pressure to be put on handing this situation professionally. Additionally, someone leaking private information out to the public can make that person look like a really a bad person. Information is typically kept private for a reason. Do we go around shouting our social security number at a mall or handing out cards with our home address on it to strangers? No. Our world has been set up to understand the social norms and what sort of information is meant to be shared publicly if desired and which types of information is meant to be kept in the back of their pocket as private information. Leaking these sort of details creates controversy and there's always a chance that not every fact may be true which therefore means there will be a need for more factcheckers and the government will have to deal with a bunch of nonsense for practically no reason. A lot of the big issues and controversies when it comes to whistleblowing are kept private, as seen with the story of Julian Assange, so while there definitely is a valid point as to why certain types of private information is attempted to be exposed on a fairly consistent basis, it can also harm the reputation of many people and put America and even our world in extreme danger. With so many national affairs existing in our society today and Afghanistan still being a prominent topic of conflict and discussion, our U.S. government is always looking for ways to deal with these issues without necessarily sharing all of their plan of actions to the general public. Why do they do this? Because they do not want people to freak out and create more chaos then there already is. The more information that is leaked, the more we will know about what is going on and the more opportunities there will be for us to get involved which I honestly think would be a bad thing. I am all in favor of active protests, but with some of these bigger issues like everything happening in Afghanistan and any potential frauds in things like Presidential Elections, a strong division of our nation can occur if all these types of private information is shared to the public. This is why we have Five Eyes, because the member nations with America being one of them is meant to monitor what's happening in these other countries. They have a set plan of what they want to monitor and how they want to battle these conflicts, but when the information gets exposed publicly it ruins everything. Trust is a VERY important quality in life that sadly has very little presence in various areas. From something as simple to a student lying to their teacher about not doing their homework, all the way to someone stating that they did not release any public information about a presidential candidate or foreign affair, our world is not fully unionized at the moment to be able to fully trust each other like that. There is a pretty solid chance we have all lied at least ONCE in our lives before, and as a whistleblower, you fall into that trap of being questioned and becoming a untrustworthy source especially if the information you release is controversial. Whistleblowers mean well, but certain historic moments like the many that occurred with Assange and WikiLeaks show that these whistleblowers cannot be fully trusted and oftentimes use their powers for evil rather than for good. 

Listed below are a couple more cons to being a whistleblower...

• Your job and career could be threatened 
• The process of whistleblowing can be EXTREMLEY lengthy
• Can cause a tumble down of relationships with others (Ex: Co-workers in a workplace if you are whistleblowing at a place like your job)

Baghad Airstrike

I mentioned earlier in this post, of the secret partnership between Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning that eventually ended up getting discovered by the general public. Well one of Manning's biggest leaks that she released that got her in deep trouble was the footage of the 2007 Baghdad airstrike that occurred in Iraq. U.S. soldiers were present and mistakenly thought a group of Arabic journalists had AK-47's when in reality they were just holding camera equipment and trying to do their job. Of course, at the time in 2007, there was a big war and conflict between America and Iraq and especially after 9/11, people at Iraq were perceived and stereotyped as terrorist's and people who wanted to literally destroy the entire United States of America. This entire U.S. Army crew ended up plotting a plan to shoot and murder these journalists since they thought they really had these weapons in their possession and shortly after they received command and confirmation, they shot and killed these innocent journalists. Two of the notable Iraqui correspondents were Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen. With these journalists on the field doing their work, they were taking various photographs and videos which led the U.S. soldiers to believe that they were using weapons. Noor-Eldeen's camera was mistaken for an RPG after it was pointed at the U.S. soldiers. Noor Eldeen was only pointing the camera at the soldiers because he was trying to photograph them in his shoot. Numerous strikes were then made and eventually there were a bunch of dead bodies on the ground and none of these people shot deserved to get shot. They were all mistaken for being bad guys when in reality they were just members of the media. When the dead bodies ended up getting picked up after a call was made, those people who were also Arabic ended up getting shot as well. What's worse is that there were children in the car that came to pick up the bodies and they ended up getting severely wounded during this devastating scene. What started off with these U.S. soldiers seeing a few people with what we seemed like weapons ended up leading to over 12 innocent people losing their life. This entire sequence was shown in a video we watched in class. We were all warned ahead of time that were was going to be some very sensitive and graphic content shown throughout the duration of the video. I personally did not know what to expect and to what extent the content would actually be graphic, but it hurt and honestly gave me chills down my spine to see these people getting killed one after one. It made matters worst that I knew they were all just moments away from losing their life and they didn't even know it. Seeing them trying to run away from the gunshots and save their own lives was hard to watch, but it provided a real in depth perspective on how crazy this world can be sometimes. These were American soldiers not being patriotic in any manner. Yes, I understand they thought these journalists had weapons and were terrorists, but still they wasted no time and showed no mercy when it came to just firing gunshots at them repeatedly and were determined to kill them all. The audio that was heard on the video had a lot of disturbing quotes like "Keep shooting him!" They even started laughing when they saw the van that came to pick up the bodies drive over one of the dead bodies which showed me just how completely low and harsh these soldiers were. Their thoughts on feelings on people from Iraq caused them to go overboard with this situation here and it was a moment that did not accurately depict how Americans are. Chelsea Manning would eventually be the one to release this footage on WikiLeaks which would eventually get her in deep trouble for exposing this sort of video which clearly shows American soldiers looking bad. Manning made the excuse that she was just trying to show how the Middle East was being treated, but of course the government was not going to admire the fact that U.S. soldiers were killing innocent people and those killings could be publicly viewed on the internet. Mix that in with the illegal partnership that Manning did with Assange, and there were a lot of issues that were created as a result, causing for time behind bars for both and a further decrease in the overall reputation of whistleblowers. 

I think we can all agree that we are better than that and that Army crew in the video were complete jerks to put it as nice as I can without ranting for three more paragraphs about it. What upsets me even more is the fact that me being someone who works in the media and wants to work in the media full-time after college, I can't even imagine being out on a shoot and losing my life while on it. Yes, I know there is a lot of controversy on the media nowadays and with all the different viewpoints various sources have and the different ways the news be consumed, there certainly is a strong division with the world of media, but at the end of the day the media means well and is here to help our world flow better. They provide us with up to date information, let us be able to hear and discuss ongoing issues in our world and so much more. Knowing that journalists like Chmagh and Noor-Eldeen had their life cut short and were no longer able to contribute to the journalism industry anymore. Journalists are taught to seek the truth and handle uncomfortable events in a professional manner, but they are not taught nor deserve to deal with knuckleheads who mistake their camera equipment for weapons. It seems like our world has only fallen more and more out of sync over the past few years, and the fact that this massive killing in Iraq occurred in 2007 is crazy! Ken Illgunas was also present in our class when we saw this video, and after he gave his thoughts on what he just saw and heavily emphasized how bad he felt for the children that they 1. Had to witness this horrible sequence and 2. Be severely wounded for no logical reason. He then took it a step further and made it more personal by saying all he could think about was what if that was his kid. I know for a fact that's almost every parent's worst nightmare... seeing their child get wounded or killed on the spot. So many times, we are taught to be aware of our surroundings and be in safe and secure locations, but sometimes, actually a LOT of times as a journalist, you can't really control where you want to be because you are TOLD where to be for certain field reports and assignments. In this case, these journalists from Iraq were in a bad position at a bad time and didn't even know it. 24 hours prior to this incident, it would not have been a bad position to be at by any means. However, the U.S. soldiers came and took over this spot and it turned it from being a suitable area to grab photos and videos into a danger territory that resulted in the lives of numerous innocent people being lost on that tragic day.

Future Outlook for Whistleblowers 

The reputation of whistleblowers in today's society is quite a negative one and it seems like it is only going to continue progress downwards within the coming years. The video we watched in class was not even aired on the news due to it consuming extreme graphic content, and it was released by a whistleblower in Chelsea Manning which ended up causing for backlash sent to Manning by government officials for making the U.S. look bad. With more and more technological advances in today's society, surveillance is becoming more prevalent, but privacy is also becoming less and less guaranteed in the lives of human beings. The sole purpose of these whistleblowers is to hunt for the problems that are affecting our nation but we live in such a controversial society nowadays where it is very hard for us all to agree on one point and it seems like all we want to do is argue and debate. Social media platforms like Twitter gives people all over the world to voice their opinion in any way they like. Certain types of information are certainly meant to be kept private, but with the existence of whistleblowers that is just not going to happen unless more of them are punished. It just seems like a lot of whistleblowers like Assange and Manning did not have the strongest of best of intentions. The unfortunate thing is that they have now created this bad reputation and stereotype as a whistleblower. Its hard to think all good things about a whistleblower when you know Manning and Assange were whistleblowers themselves. Our world doesn't forget about people like that. Especially with everything they leaked from Iraq, that's something that's hard to get out of your mind. Once you see that video and associate it with Manning and Assange, it sticks. I know it stuck for me. The freedom of the first amendment was taken away from the journalists that day and cost them their life. Where is the real freedom of speech or freedom of press when you ACTUALLY need it? Being a whistleblower is tough and it seems like they feel the need to show every little thing like the incident in Iraq, but maybe there was a reason why there was no official footage or evidence released publicly over 5 years after the incident occurred? America is trying to continue to reign supreme as the world's most powerful nation. With the everlasting developing of Artificial Intelligence, better known as A.I., China is on the move to try and take over that title and prove their citizens know how to live a better life than us. If all of our bad information gets exposed without the official consent of the government, then large problems will arise. Perhaps someday whistleblowers can become real heroes again and be looked at positively, but as of now that is not the case and that is what current whistleblowers must deal with. If there can be one or a few whistleblowers that can showcase the positive value and worth of being a whistleblower, then they can serve as an inspiration/motivation to the world that whistleblowers aren't all bad. It is just extremely fascinating to see that whistleblowers were originally intended to be a positive piece of people in our society, but now they are on the downside when it comes to how much they are liked by the general public. There is slight hope for whistleblowers, but similar to a rebuilding team in sports, it is going to take jumping through hoops, living and learning through various experiences and more if whistleblowers ever want to have the chance of regaining the trust of people in society.