Spies, Whistleblowers, and the Federal Shield Law
Julian Assange: Tinker, Tailor, Newsman, Spy? The John-le-Carré-esque saga of Edward Snowden's run from the United States Government has sparked an interesting conversation on how to distinguish whistle-blowing from espionage. The fact that Snowden has been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 certainly ought to give us pause. After all, this is a law that was originally passed during the First World War, one that was used, among other things, to silence pacifists and other opponents of American intervention as well as political dissidents in the ensuing Red Scare of the 1920s. No doubt, then, an argument can be made that just like one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist, so too can a whistleblower be reclassified as a spy depending on which side of a political argument you happen to find yourself on. Historians of science and STS scholars have thought a lot about the important work that all manner of classification can do. From Foucault's early arche...