The 'real story' of 'illegal leaks'

[BoyNextDoor]

I went and watched "All the President's Men" again in the midst of all this effort for the Republicans to change the narrative to the ‘real story’ of ‘illegal leaks’. With Watergate, it took a whistleblower like Mark Felt aka "Deep Throat" to show Nixon for the crook he is. Would anyone argue that act of conscientious whistleblowing was bad for America?

Our history is really replete with the patriotic leaking of the truth to set straight the political narrative of the day. Benjamin Franklin that very thing it with the Hutchinson letters. Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler exposed the "Business Plot" against FDR, proving that the best way the kill a demagogue is in his crib. A pentagon auditor in the 1980s exposed the "$200 hammers and $900 toilet seats."

So it seems to me that the 'real story' is that leaking and whistleblowing to put the truth on the front page is patriotic.

 

[rocket_surgery]

Whether or not it's patriotic depends on intent.

 

[Ms_Ann]

https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/cover2.png

 

[Ms_Ann]

https://i.imgflip.com/18w0yk.jpg

 

[Colonel Hogan]

I went and watched "All the President's Men" again in the midst of all this effort for the Republicans to change the narrative to the ‘real story’ of ‘illegal leaks’. With Watergate, it took a whistleblower like Mark Felt aka "Deep Throat" to show Nixon for the crook he is. Would anyone argue that act of conscientious whistleblowing was bad for America?

Our history is really replete with the patriotic leaking of the truth to set straight the political narrative of the day. Benjamin Franklin that very thing it with the Hutchinson letters. Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler exposed the "Business Plot" against FDR, proving that the best way the kill a demagogue is in his crib. A pentagon auditor in the 1980s exposed the "$200 hammers and $900 toilet seats."

So it seems to me that the 'real story' is that leaking and whistle blowing to put the truth on the front page is patriotic.

The historical roots of true "whistle blowing" is to reveal criminal activity from within the inside of a criminal enterprise. It is designed to protect informants who fear reprisals in terms of job loss, discrimination, or worse, FROM CRIMINALS -- NOT mere politicians keeping lawfully protected national security information even if in so doing they lie publicly about its existence (James Clapper). It is NOT designed to reward or protect those who violate their national security oaths (Edward Snowden) unless a specific document was itself OVERLY CLASSIFIED for perhaps to conceal other criminal activity or merely to avoid political embarrassment under the guise of national security (i.e. the Pentagon Papers).

The point being, the context of ALL the facts surrounding a whistle blower's "whistle" is critically important. The determining factor validating a worthy, patriotic disclosure is not JUST the sincerity of the whistle blower's personal outrage; not the opinion of a majority of poll respondents on whether they "felt" they had a "right to know" simply because somebody in the government was "lying to America," or, least of all, because a national newspaper or TV network quotes anonymous sources illegally providing government classified information.

Some whistle blowing is, indeed, patriotic. Some is merely cheap gossip. Some is payback for a personal vendetta. And some is its own criminal act in search of inappropriate absolution.

One size does NOT fit all.

 

[renard_ruse]

I went and watched "All the President's Men" again in the midst of all this effort for the Republicans to change the narrative to the ‘real story’ of ‘illegal leaks’. With Watergate, it took a whistleblower like Mark Felt aka "Deep Throat" to show Nixon for the crook he is. Would anyone argue that act of conscientious whistleblowing was bad for America?

Our history is really replete with the patriotic leaking of the truth to set straight the political narrative of the day. Benjamin Franklin that very thing it with the Hutchinson letters. Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler exposed the "Business Plot" against FDR, proving that the best way the kill a demagogue is in his crib. A pentagon auditor in the 1980s exposed the "$200 hammers and $900 toilet seats."

So it seems to me that the 'real story' is that leaking and whistleblowing to put the truth on the front page is patriotic.

Are you RoryN?