Posts Tagged ‘whistle blower’
Placing conscience above career
I’ve written before about my disappointment with the Obama administration’s persecution of whistleblowers … in direct contradiction to 2008 candidate Obama’s statements about the matter. This article A whistleblower salutes Bradley Manning by Thomas Andrews Drake writing at Politico is a worthwhile read, suggesting as he does that Bradley Manning’s actions in exposing ‘the dark […]
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it
That’s a quote from Martin Luther King. One of the themes of this blog (apologies to those who don’t like recurring topics) is whistle blowers (as I write this, 66 posts are so tagged). I believe in supporting and encouraging them. As I have explained, I think the *urge* to tell the truth, despite possible […]
The web: almighty humbler of power, or useful tool?
Worth a read: this brief article by Dan Zak at The Washington Post Woodward and Bernstein: Could the Web generation uncover a Watergate-type scandal? discussing how a ubiquitous internet has so seized the world-view of even bright people that they think journalistic ‘sleuthing’ can be done online and that no corrupt power can but kneel […]
Window dressing
I was sorry to see this … Article here at stuff.co.nz As I said when the Lombard Finance charges were laid, I had quite a bit to do with Doug Graham and Bill Jeffries as cabinet minsters when I was a journo in the Press Gallery. I liked them both. This result will give pause […]
Astonishing corruption at Murdoch’s Wall St Journal
Crikey. If this is how Murdoch’s flagship Wall St Journal operates, what’s going on in the background at Fox News? This tale of corruption, money-channelling and ‘news’ articles used as bribes to keep the conspiracy alive is devastating. It’s from Nick Davies who exposed News International’s phone hacking and police & political corruption … The Guardian […]
An ‘abiding distrust’ for anonymous speech
Here’s a really good article from Dan Gillmor defending the use of pseudonyms and anonymity on the web — even in the light of Tom MacMaster’s Amina ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ hoax… Sounding real is not the same as being real. The fake Amina’s blog was especially well done, with details that sounded authentic even to native […]
Blast from the past has lessons for today
A very clear and loud whistle was blown … Born in London from German parents, Frederick Voigt was the Manchester Guardian correspondent in Germany from 1920 to 1933. Voigt was one of the most important of the newspaper’s foreign team in the 30s, becoming famous for exposing the threat of the Nazi regime Today, when […]
They’re playing our song (or whistle-blowing it?)
I don’t know if you’ve heard about Frank Bailey — he’s a former Sarah Palin aide who has written a ‘tell-all’ memoir of his time working for the high-profile former Governor and vice presidential candidate. Frank Bailey says he’s not bitter or being vindictive. He says writing the book Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A […]
Silence and the abandonment of moral leadership
Wow. Following President Obama’s decision to publicly release the long form of his birth certificate to address Republican crazies, conspiracy theorists and cynical opportunists (or all three like Donald Trump) I read a brief essay by Clarence B Jones which, like others since, squarely placed the hallucinatory ‘controversy’ in racist territory … and also echoed […]
Compulsory ‘uncovering’ of sin
I read this article last week with a shudder. A mother has been jailed after her conviction for child neglect: A mother who knew her partner was sexually violating her two daughters has been jailed for a year for failing to act, in an unprecedented case of child neglect. So, effectively, this individual has been […]
The sort of spruiker who gives spruikers a bad name
My hero Neil Jenman shares his experience with an Australian spruiker … Interesting about the tie-up between Steven Fagan, his book ‘Accidental Millionaire’ and Carly Crutchfield. Have a read: Nick and Wendy are a delightful young couple. In 2004, after advice from Fagan’s property group, they purchased an apartment in the western Sydney suburb of […]
The demonisation of Julian Assange hits turbulence
As noted before, I’ve been uneasy about the pursuit of the WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange — concerned at the [presumably] US and other intelligence agencies attempts at launching a ‘decapitation attack’. The Swedish prosecution seems half-baked — an arrest warrant, solitary confinement, extradition for questioning? Eh? Extradited for questioning? Now, according the Wall Street Journal‘s Julian […]
Uncovering the Scientology cult and its practices
Writing in The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright gives a comprehensive and illuminating account of the cult known as the Church of Scientology. His article is a follow-up the controversy surrounding writer/film director Paul Haggis’s public defection after 35 years as a Scientologist. I quoted Haggis’s resignation letter with its core message: ‘Silence is consent … […]
Quite a lot of wannabe Hemingway
Oh zing! From Ed Vulliamy’s The Observer piece about WikiLeaks publishing US State Department cables re the background of the Egyptian — gee, what do we call it? Uprising? Revolution? Riots? Julian Assange: ‘How do you attack an organisation? You attack its leadership’ Julian Assange … has been up all night disseminating, on his WikiLeaks […]
