Kelly’s book of secrets

[Jan Klimkowski]

I am not at all surprised to know of this. Personally, I have no idea why people who have knowledge and information which is perceived as dangerous to powerful interests keep that information to themselves whether to write a book or what ever. It like holding a bomb. Put the documents on torrent or Wikileaks. Hold a press conference and be done with it. Name names, show and tell. Then write the book or sell the film rights if you like. Much better life insurance.

I agree. Blowing the whistle in the most public way possible, and ensuring you are a known figure is the best available protection.

However, the route is fraught with danger and problems.

Any remotely dark secrets the whistleblower has will be leaked by Them, to discredit the messenger in the hope that the message will then become discredited by association.

The number done on the Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) character in Michael Mann's outstanding The Insider is pretty accurate in this regard. The whistleblower loses his family, his livelihood and much of his reputation.

The investigative journalist Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) also gets screwed by his MSM employer. Don Hewitt is the MSM journalist-turned-suit; Mike Wallace is the anchor with dubious integrity.

Here are some highly pertinent exchanges:

Lowell Bergman: I fought for you and I still fight for you!
JeffreyWigand: You fought for me? You manipulated me! Into where I am now - staring at the Brown & Williamson building, it's all dark except for the tenth floor. That's the legal department, that's where they fuck with my life!

Don Hewitt: This news division has been villified by the New York Times! In print, on television, for *caving* to corporate interests!
Don Hewitt: New York Times ran a blow by blow of what we talked about behind closed doors! You fucked us!
Lowell Bergman: No, you fucked you! Don't invert stuff! Big Tobacco tried to smear Wigand, you bought it. The Wall Street Journal, here: not exactly a bastion of anti-capitalist sentiment, refutes Big Tobacco's smear campaign as the lowest form of character assassination! And now, even now, when every word of what Wigand has said on our show is printed, the entire deposition of his testimony in a court of law in the State of Mississippi, the cat totally out of the bag, you're still standing here debating! Don, what the hell else do you need?
Don Hewitt: Mike, you tell him.
Mike Wallace: You fucked up, Don.