For my law and society project I examined the case New York
Times v. United States (1971). The case involved the pentagon papers, which
were acquired and distributed by a man named Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg decided
to release the papers because he thought the war lead to a lot of senseless
killing. Because he decided to release the papers, he was able to help
accomplish his goal and stop the Vietnam War. This lead me to think about rolls
whistleblowers play in modern day society. One of the most famous people today for
whistle blowing is a man named Edward Snowden. Snowden was famous for leaking
NSA surveillance programs the government was running. This started a worldwide
debate on how governments use surveillance on their citizens and whether or not
it is justified doing so. What do you guys think about whistleblowers in
society?
I believe that people like snowden help the world be more aware of the governments actions. We have had times where the government has done some things that aren't constitutional and its people like snowden that bring it into the light, opening the peoples lives.
ReplyDeleteI think that whistleblowers in our society serve to shed light on certain issues that we would otherwise be blind to. Thanks to people like Ellsberg and Snowden, we have been made more aware of flaws in our government.
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ReplyDeleteDo you mean that after the release of the pentagon papers, people stopped supporting the war which lead to the end of the Vietnam War?
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