With that I announce: The Corporate Observer ‘Whistleblower’ Renaming Contest.
My familiarity with whistleblower law and actions have led me to realize an unfortunate but undeniable truth: the term “whistleblower” has a reputation that is broken beyond repair. In actuality, whistleblowers are essential public servants, bravely risking their jobs and professional reputations to protect Main Street from illicit activity. Every one of us has benefitted—knowingly or not—from multiple brave folks who came forward and shed light on illegal practices. We call these people whistleblowers in that they are drawing attention to the behavior and passing it along to the appropriate authorities to remedy.
The problem is many people hear “whistleblower” and do not picture a well-meaning public servant. They picture a self-interested snitch, or worse—a liar. I have tried extolling the virtues of whistleblowers, and Dodd-Frank has some folks reevaluating their whistleblower bias. But I suggest a new, perhaps radical idea: rebranding. And the beauty of it is, I want to leave it open to the readers to do so. With that I announce: The Corporate Observer ‘Whistleblower’ Renaming Contest.
I can get the pot stirring, but I hope and suspect the best suggestions will come from those more creative than myself. Do we call them ‘citizen informants’ or ‘inside information contributors’. Or for the more cynical, maybe ‘snitches’ does suffice. As you can see, my creativity is waning. I can’t wait to hear what some of the readers think.