Leaking ≠ whistleblowing. Leaking IS NOT whistleblowing. Leaking is to whistleblowing as horse manure is to chocolate cake. Not that the media will ever acknowledge the difference, since they benefit from it. Leaking is a sneaky, cowardly way to be unaccountable – an attempt to have your cake and eat it too. In a just world, the appellation “leaker” would be every bit as disreputable as “Quisling.”
He was denying his dishonorable acts as late as 1999, and at one point lied under oath about them. With good reason; they were shameful, in spite of the fact that some people defend them.
Richard Ben-Veniste, a key lawyer in the Watergate prosecution team, said Felt’s role showed that “the importance of whistle-blowers shouldn’t be underestimated, particularly when there are excesses by the executive branch of government — which in this case went all the way to the executive office.”
But as Ed Morrissey points out, Felt’s no hero -
Felt had other options than skulking around DC parking garages to leak information to Washington Post reporters. He was the #2 man in the FBI. Why not start an investigation of the wrongdoing? If not that, Felt could have contacted Congress to alert them to Nixon’s activities (Congress was thoroughly dominated by Democrats who would have welcomed the gift), or simpy gone public with the information to force an investigation at the FBI or Congress if he couldn’t get either to act.
Instead, Felt took the cheap route and kept his hands clean among the same people he despised. People seem to forget that we do have channels for whistleblowers that don’t go through the editorial offices of the Washington Post and New York Times.
Whistleblowers (like P. Jeffrey Black) step up and do the honorable thing for the greater good. Matt Diaz dishonorably (as even he later admitted) leaked information and at least had the decency to regret it later. Until we repudiate these people – and the reporters who protect them in spite of the fact that they’re breaking the law – it’s going to continue. Leaking is essentially an espionage activity, and although it’s primarily domestic, it also benefits our enemies – as the New York times exposure of the perfectly legal terror finance tracking program did. It’s an espionage activity, and those engaged in it are committing treason. We should treat them accordingly.
