ABSTRACT

Edward Snowden’s revelations ignited public discourse on whistleblowing and whistleblower protection legislation. Given the polemics over whistleblower distinctions throughout mediated exchanges between US officials and the press, this manuscript constitutes a synchronic ideographic analysis of pertinent, recognized ideographs as they were operationalized in relation to whistleblowing within the Snowden discourse. While news media and the public agreed that Snowden operated as a whistleblower, the US government adamantly denied this classification. Instead, US officials manufactured a media trial, and in three distinct phases, purged whistleblowing from the public forum, rhetorically criminalized Snowden as a threat to national <security>, and utilized whistleblowing as a means to propagate the war on <terrorism> and defend covert surveillance. These processes afforded US officials the ability to funnel whistleblowers through private channels, effectively neutralizing the public power of whistleblowers. It is argued that removing whistleblowers from the public forum, while packaged as a protective measure for whistleblowers, operates as a defensive measure for state officials and authoritarianism writ large as it disarms a democratic populace of a foundational tool of free speech and dissent.

摘要

爱德华·斯诺登（Edward Snowden）的启示激发了公众对举报和举报人保护立法的讨论。鉴于在美国官员与媒体之间进行的所有调解交流中，举报人之间存在分歧，因此该手稿构成了对相关公认表意文字的共时表意分析，因为它们与斯诺登话语中的举报有关。尽管新闻媒体和公众都认为斯诺登是举报人，但美国政府坚决否认这一分类。相反，美国官员在三个不同的阶段进行了媒体审判，从公共论坛上清除了举报，将斯诺登（Snowden）夸大其词定性为对国家<安全>的威胁，并利用举报作为传播反恐战争的手段。并捍卫秘密监视。这些程序使美国官员能够通过私人渠道向举报者汇报，从而有效地消除了举报者的公共权力。有人认为，将举报人从公众论坛中删除，虽然被打包成对举报人的保护措施，但对州政府官员来说却是一种防御措施，而威权主义则起到了很大作用，因为它解除了民主人民对言论自由和异议的基本工具的武装。