Blog 10: EOTO Reflection #2: Whistleblowing

Another week of EOTO presentations provided another useful week of information gathering. From the different theories, to different policies and even the media sphere, it was hard to zone in on just one thing to write about, as most of the topics presented were all very interesting in their own ways. The one term however, that I have been trying to learn more about for the longest time is “Whistleblowing”.

What is Whistleblowing?

Whistleblowing is defined as “disclosing information that you reasonably believe is evidence of a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety”. As someone who is actively
against the wrongdoing and corruption of our own government, I humbly respect whistleblowers for what they do. Whistleblowing can have huge impacts on our society, as they can also change our culture and our view on trusting things. My classmate talked about famous whistleblowers from history. One of the most important and beneficial whistleblowers was Mark Felt. He was the man who brought down the Nixon administration. He investigated President Nixon and his involvement in a reelection scandal. This turned out to be the infamous Watergate scandal. The other whistleblowing story my classmate mentioned that I never realized was broken through by a whistleblower was the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal of 1998. Linda Tripp, former American Civil servant, secretly recorded Monica Lewinsky boast and talk about her relations with President Clinton. She later turned this in to investigators, and the rest was history.

Conclusion

Whistleblowing is necessary for a world we live in today, because who truly knows what goes on behind the scenes of everything. We deserve to live in an environment where everything is true and we are never lied to. Whistleblowers do deserve a lot of respect for what they do. Not only finding the information, but having the guts to come forward with it, knowing that this will change many things. It is a huge responsibility. You could even argue that whistleblowers somewhat risk their lives by doing what they do.