(Washington, DC) – The Government Accountability Project’s (GAP’s) program, the American Whistleblower Tour: Essential Voices for Accountability, comes to Florida International University (FIU) this week, from February 8-9. The stop will feature prominent whistleblowers (Frank Casey, Madoff Ponzi scheme; Dr. Jon Oberg, Education Department) and notable journalists (Lowell Bergman, Mark Feldstein, Carol Marbin Miller).

GAP’s Tour is a dynamic campaign aimed at educating the public – particularly America’s university students – about the phenomenon and practice of whistleblowing. Many stops, including FIU, feature presentations by high-profile whistleblowers and journalists who discuss their experiences. This stop also highlights Tour guests who give in-class presentations and visit with students.

A full description of the Tour can be found at http://www.WhistleblowerTour.org. GAP President Louis Clark, who has been protecting whistleblowers at GAP for nearly 35 years, will emcee and moderate select presentations.

“Whistleblowing is a tough thing to do, but so very important for our democracy,” stated Clark. “Whistleblowers should be recognized, listened to, protected, and honored for their courage. That’s what our Tour is all about.”

Participants for the FIU Tour stop include:

Lowell Bergman: Bergman is a distinguished investigative reporter for The New York Times, correspondent for PBS Frontline, and professor at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. In 2004, he (and fellow journalist David Barstow) won a Pulitzer Prize for their series on the egregious worker safety and environmental violations of the sewer industry. The story of his investigation and working relationship with Big Tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand was chronicled in the motion picture, The Insider.
Frank Casey: Casey was an equity specialist manager at Ramparts Investments when he discovered that Bernie Madoff, a money manager, generated unrealistic 12 percent returns steadily for his investors. Casey took his findings to Harry Markopolos, who brought them to the SEC. The SEC declined to investigate and by the time investigators finally exposed Madoff, investors had lost about $50 billion.
Mark Feldstein: Feldstein was an award-winning investigative journalist for CNN and ABC News, among other outlets, before becoming a professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. His recent book, Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture, has been widely praised.
Dr. Jon H. Oberg: In 2003, while at the Department of Education in a research capacity, Dr. Oberg discovered illegal payments to student loan lenders of federal tax dollars that department officials instructed him not to investigate further. On his own time, he researched the payments and reported them to Congress, which in 2004 ended the payments prospectively, saving billions of dollars. In 2007, Oberg sued the recipients under the False Claims Act. Three years later, the Department of Justice announced it had settled four of the cases for over $57 million.
Carol Marbin Miller is an award-winning reporter for several newspapers throughout Florida, including the Miami Herald, where she reported on issues involving children, elders and disabled people for over a decade. Miller’s watchdog reporting often led to meaningful reforms. Among several other series that sparked new legislation and real change, she authored the Patient Pipeline, which revealed the existence of “patient brokers” who paid kickbacks for the referral of consumers into psychiatric and drug treatment programs. This report resulted in a new state law banning the practice – and led to the indictment and conviction of about 50 people in Tampa federal court.

This Tour stop is sponsored by the FIU School of Journalism and Mass Communications (SJMC), and cosponsored by GAP, the FIU School of Accounting, College of Law, School of International & Public Affairs and the Honors College.

The public Tour stop events will take place at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC) and Biscayne Bay Campus (BBC) with the following schedule:

Wednesday, Feb. 8 at MMC

How Whistling Smoked Out Big Tobacco (2-4:30 pm, SIPA Building 125)
Panelists include Lowell Bergmann (appearing via Skype), Mark Feldstein, FIU Law professor Howard Wasserman, and Louis Clark.

The Politics of Concealment and Revelation in the Nixon Era (7-8:30 pm, MARC Pavilion)
Panelists include Mark Feldstein and Fred Blevens, SJMC professor and Honors Fellow at FIU.

Thursday, Feb. 9 at BBC

No Secrets: How Whistleblowers and Journalists Have Changed the World (2-3:15 pm, Wolfe Theater)
Panelists include Frank Casey, Dr. Jon Oberg, Carol Marbin Miller, and Louis Clark.

The FIU stop is the second of 2012, with at least seven remaining for the current academic year. The Tour kicked off last September at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with nearly 2,000 faculty and students in attendance. That event, and the subsequent three (University of Texas at Austin, Brandeis University, Auburn University) all enjoyed broad participation and outstanding reviews.

Goals of the Tour include raising awareness about the vital role of whistleblowing in our democracy, preparing America’s youth for ethical decision-making, countering negative connotations associated with whistleblowing, connecting prospective whistleblowers to available resources, and encouraging academic studies of whistleblowing.

Impetus

In February 2010, GAP teamed up with film production company Participant Media and the Manhattan venue Paley Center for the Media to produce the definitive television presentation on whistleblowing – Anyone Can Whistle: The Essential Role of the Whistleblower in American Society. The event, watched online live by thousands, was the first-ever special explaining and celebrating the role of whistleblowers in our culture. Hosted by Juan Williams (then of NPR), and featuring whistleblower heroes such as Daniel Ellsberg, Frank Serpico, Coleen Rowley and others, the program examined the six stages of the typical whistleblowing experience, celebrated the courage of whistleblowers, and decried the lack of adequate legal protections.

More importantly, the presentation educated the public on the practice of whistleblowing. Through the American Whistleblower Tour, GAP hopes to expand upon the goals and the energy produced by this event.

Contact: Dylan Blaylock, Communications Director
Phone: 202.457.0034, ext. 137, cell 202.236.3733
Email: [email protected]

Government Accountability Project
The Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, GAP’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, GAP is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

#####