Why Is It Called a Whistleblower?
The origins behind the famous term
Recently, a Facebook whistleblower named Frances Haugen has been in the news, leaking thousands of pages of documents. Haugen’s whistleblowing showed the organization cares more for profits than safety. She revealed the company’s top executives knew how its products could harm users, like knowing Instagram was harmful to women’s body image.
That got me thinking — where does the word whistleblower come from? In this day and age, someone who reveals highly sensitive and confidential documents of the government or organization has to be careful and discreet. Edward Snowden, one of the most famous whistleblowers ever, certainly never actually blew a whistle to let the NSA know he was leaking their documents.
Other popular whistleblowers include Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst who gave classified government documents to WikiLeaks, and Daniel Ellsbury, who leaked the Pentagon Papers.
So the act of actually blowing a whistle is not discreet — why do we call people who leak highly sensitive documents in a discreet manner whistleblowers?
First of all, I misunderstood the context of blowing the whistle. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a whistleblower is someone who calls attention to criminal activity. Other…
