By KAITY WILSON
Telling secrets is often looked down on, but whistleblowers are tattle tales who have the public’s best interests in mind.
The West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism hosted a panel discussion Wednesday evening to showcase the ability of professionals to expose secrets that could potentially save the environment.
The moderated panel discussion featured three people who, “blew the whistle,” on companies and government agencies who were supposed to be protecting the environment.
A whistleblower is someone who discloses evidence of wrongdoing to those who can do something about it. This can include journalists, managers, hotlines or lawmakers. They seek to make a difference and risk their jobs and personal safety to do so.
These people have worked closely with the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization sponsoring the American Whistleblower Tour.
The president of GAP, Louis Clark said whistleblowers should be noted for their courage.
“For every one, there are hundreds that remain silent,” Clark said. “But if it wasn’t for those whistleblowers, we would never know about these problems.”
“Without the work of whistleblowers, many activities that are harmful to the public could never be brought to light and many of the parties responsible could never be held accountable for their actions,” said P.I. Reed School of Journalism Dean Maryanne Reed.
Jack Spadaro, a WVU graduate, is interested in engineering safety, which was sparked by the Buffalo Creek dam failure in 1972. Spadaro is the former head of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy who blew the whistle on the federal agency’s attempt to whitewash an investigation into a major spill of coal slurry from a waste site in Kentucky.
The spill, which occurred in 2000, destroyed wildlife and contaminated water for thousands of people in Kentucky and West Virginia. Spadaro refused to sign the whitewashed report and went public, resigning from the company he worked for.
Rick Piltz, a former senior associate in the office of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, also contributed to the discussion. Piltz blew the whistle on the Bush administration’s censorship of reports on global warming.
Another panelist, Wilma Subra, is a scientist in Louisiana who blew the whistle when clean-up workers were not receiving adequate training and healthcare after the BP Gulf Coast oil spill in 2010. She also blew the whistle on misleading statements by the Food and Drug Administration stating seafood being harvested in the Gulf of Mexico was safe to consume after the spill.
Six stages of whistleblowing were listed at the discussion. The first stage is discovering wrongdoing followed by disclosing the information which leads to retaliation by the whistleblower’s management. The last three stages are isolation from coworkers, becoming surrounded by change makers and supporters and the public recognizing the problem, resulting in changes being made.
The three panelists said whistleblowing is not an easy decision to make, but it is an important job. They agreed working closely with journalists and those who have the power to initiate change is also an important part of the process.
“Sometimes the only hope we have of getting the truth out is good journalism,” said Spadaro. “It is essential to have somebody to go to and allow the public to know what is going on.”
Wilma Subra, who endured threats and a drive- by-shooting of her office after blowing the whistle, said her best advice if you are going to be a whistleblower is to have a thick skin.
Subra said that although whistleblowers must endure negative responses, they’re working for the better good of everyone.
For more information about the American Whistleblower Tour visit http://www.WhistleblowerTour.org.