EOTO #2: The Whistle Blower

It’s a high pitch sound that invades the ears of all who can hear it’s it commands your attention. It’s a the sound of a whistle, and it makes sense that when government employees offer information about wrongdoing that they would share the same name.  

Whistleblowers have been around for a long time since around 1700’s with Benjamin Franklin thought to be the first. He was accused of treason by British Government when he leaked documents for a lieutenant. 

These document included treatment of colonies that he deemed unjust according to a piece written by the National Park Service. 

Though a lot has changed since then, today we still have countless whittle blowers. Two that are most popularly know would be Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. They both leaked government document in the 2000’s. Their lack of silence changed the world at the time and the effects still linger today. 

Edward Snowden, at the time was working as a contractor for the NSA. Prior to that he worked for the CIA so he wasn’t new to being a government employee. However, during his time working for the NSA he discovered a software that the government has created and was working on. 

This software was created with the purpose of monitoring American Citizen’s private conversations. This includes phone calls, emails, things on our webcams, as well as our text messages. 

Snowden leaked this information to the public by working with journalists to help him release his story. After that he was facing treason charges from the US government. Because of this he fled to Russia where he still lives today. 

In recent news he was just granted Russian Citizenship where he lives with his wife and child.His story was so big that it was turned into a moved called Snowden, it details his life leading up to and after the news broke. 

Julian Assange has a similar story, though with not as much of a happy ending. Assange was a talented hacker who ended up creating his own website called Wikileaks. 

The point of the website was to allow people to upload confidential document that revealed wrong doing except it would be completely anonymous. 

Though it sounds like a good idea it caused lots of problems for Assange. Especially when he was accused of conspiring to collect classified documents. After an Army analysts submitted documents to Assange he was accused of helping her retrieve them. 

He has since been detained without being charged which has sparked global outrage. In recent news he is supposed to be getting extradited from Britain to the US where he will face charges. 

It is important that we have whistleblowers because they prevent the government from lying to us. Also it allows us to stay informed about things that are going on in the government. However, even though whistleblowers do a noble job they are the only ones who take the fall for it. 

In both cases Edward Snowden and Julian Assange both lost so much for their involvement. Snowden lost the ability to live in America. And Assange lost something far worse, his freedom.

Personally, as a future Journalist I know that though out my career I will see my fare share of whistle blowers. Especially now living in a society that has become increasingly more an more intolerant of injustice. My hope however, is that people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden won’t be punished for revealing wrong doing. 

Through out the course of this class I have learned about the injustices that have plagued our America for Centuries. What I want to know is when will we become a society that respects those who chose not to sit in silence but instead stand for the truth, no matter how scary it may be.