Edward Snowden and whistleblowers in the modern world

Edward Snowden has been revealed as the man who informed the Guardian about the NSA’s telecommunications surveillance program. He’ll end up getting into a heap of trouble, too, but I am glad that he did it.

In the olden days, reporters found out information and protected their sources. And if someone was angry about what was reported, it was the publishing company that was sued.

I recently talked to someone who had expressed legitimate concerns about for-profit universities in his blog, and he was sued for libel by a for-profit university. Huh? Does that make any sense? Was his only crime that he didn’t link back to their sites?

And now, I’m enmeshed in a lawsuit filed by a man who is not happy that I reported that he was guilty of hedge-fund fraud. He didn’t sue the Los Angeles Times, which also reported the story, or Wiley Publishing, where I published the piece first. Instead, he sued me as an individual. And, as more and more reporting is done by average people who do not have layers of reporters, editors, and publishers between them and their targets, we’ll see more people forced to pay for their own defense – or scared off because they cannot afford it.

It’s wrong, and it is something that will have to change. The legal system is set up assuming that everyone can afford lawyers to spend lots and lots of time on procedure. That alone will prove to be a deterrent to reporting, and that’s wrong.

And so, I wish Edward Snowden all the luck in the world. It would be nice if we lived in a world of Deep Throat, where the person who brought down Nixon was both revered by the public and protected by reporters. The reporters, in turn, were protected by a publisher with deep pockets who had already shown courage in publishing the Pentagon Papers.

We need more truth in the world. We need a public that isn’t cynical and afraid. And if Edward Snowden has a legal defense fund, I will contribute. I know what an expensive hassle this is, and I’m being sued by an ex-con who is representing himself.