This year’s top 25 censored stories of 2007 includes this interesting tidbit:
Special Counsel Scott Bloch, appointed by President Bush in 2004, is overseeing the virtual elimination of federal whistleblower rights in the U.S. government.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the agency that is supposed to protect federal employees who blow the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse is dismissing hundreds of cases while advancing almost none. According to the Annual Report for 2004 (which was not released until the end of first quarter fiscal year 2006) less than 1.5 percent of whistleblower claims were referred for investigation while more than 1000 reports were closed before they were even opened. Only eight claims were found to be substantiated, and one of those included the theft of a desk, while another included attendance violations. Favorable outcomes have declined 24 percent overall, and this is all in the first year that the new special counsel, Scott Bloch, has been in office.
And out of 25 censored stories, that’s just number 6. Yep. This snitching sh*t has got to stop!
(edited to add: Check out blackprof.com for a richer take on this.)
Dr. Spence, thanks for the post and link to Project Censored. In his introduction to The Crisis of the Old Order, Arthur Sclesinger, Jr. wrote “The great strength of democracy lies in its capacity for self correction.” And most recently Eddie Glaude has written “Our democratic way of life is by no means guaranteed, nor is it perfect.” I congratulate you and others in the black blogosphere, in particular, for taking it upon yourselves to challenge us to examine our nation and our place in it.
This sort of truth telling is not recreated in any other public forum. Recently the Atlantic Monthly and 60 Minutes did stories about ‘stop snitching’ as it relates to low income, crime infested black communities. But neither of them attempted to make connections to activities by government and private corporations to monitor and sanction employees who reveal unflattering information that nevertheless advance the public interest.
That is really scary. I guess we all know (if we didn’t already) who the government is out to protect…
You know, this is what I love about Bush. Despite the subtle bias of low expectations, he manages to surprise me every month or two with some tidbit like this.