The ethical resister's last resort : news coverage over the allegations of a national security whistleblower

Abstract

An analysis of news representations of Edmonds' allegations finds that her allegations of systemic iniquities were almost completely ignored. Of the stories that did represent her allegations in terms of systemic problems, they were nearly consistent in framing problems as indicative of a failure of the system to meet its stated or assumed aims. The legitimacy of the national security establishment was almost never questioned. Despite the fact that Edmonds emphasized her allegations of systemic iniquity, this component of her allegations were dismissed in favor of characterizing her as a whistleblower who complained of organizational dysfunction within the FBI, espionage among one low-level co-worker, or "shoddy work" produced in the translation department. Government agencies and high-level officials were not portrayed as working against the public interest, as Edmonds had alleged. The hegemony model of news production and indexing theory are supported by this case.