Go and Get Yourself a Whistle and Blow

On the Media

• Episode: Go and Get Yourself a Whistle and Blow
• Website: On the Media
• Feed URL: http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia
• Duration: 00:09:17
• Published: 2019-10-02 18:00

Ever present in the Snowden and Manning era, the word "whistleblower" is again dominating the airwaves. But where exactly did the word come from? Who gets to decide who qualifies as a whistleblower? Back in 2015, Brooke spoke to language columnist Ben Zimmer, legal director for the Government Accountability Project Tom Devine, and progressive icon Ralph Nader--who "rehabilitated" the word in the 1970's--about the history of the popular epithet.