Federal Whistleblower Investigator Fired After Blowing the Whistle on Own Agency | Hacker News Reader

Federal Whistleblower Investigator Fired After Blowing the Whistle on Own Agency

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198 pointswcbeard1021 comments

And meanwhile the government is saying that Edward Snowden should have used official whistleblowing avenues instead of going public.

While completely ignoring that contractors like Snowden have absolutely no whistleblower protections at all.

Yeah Hillary brought up the chestnut of seeking whistleblower protections in the most recent debate... nobody called her out on it.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/...

So the agency responsible for investigating claims regarding workplace health and safety matters, under the OSHA organizational umbrella, fired an employee for making claims regarding unethical work policies, which are now under investigation by a different agency, the Office of Special Counsel.

The umpire has reviewed the play: it is not irony. I repeat: it is not irony.

Under the original definition, it is not irony. Under the modern definition, it is rain on your wedding day.

Irony is in the eye of the beholder since it hinges on the reader's expectations.

Thanks, Alanis.

Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.

It is indeed irony.

"a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result."

I find it ironic that you didn't bother to check what irony means before becoming an irony umpire.

Perhaps you would like to lodge a formal complaint against the Irony Assessment Office? It would, of course, have your full name and employee identification number on the form, so that we can be extra certain that we all know exactly who the rabble-rouser is that needs to be fired. Er, not fired, persecuted. Sorry. What I meant to say was "protected". Ignore those scare quotes.

It was a joke. Don't worry, I'll keep my day job (by knowing when to keep my mouth shut).

I hope I'm not the only one with the vague hope that somewhere there is a Monty Python sketch of this.

Oh HN, you make my morning.

I'm going to just assume OSC is accurately portrayed by Person of Interest - they already know, and they'll shoot you if they find out you know too.

Is this just re-reporting a past event? They even include a clip of Jon Stewart on the Daily Show talking about this specific event in the past. Is there any new information here, or is this just blogspam from a news channel in an actual TV news segment?

Now he has been fired. The included Daily Show blurb consisted of him saying he'd probably be fired.

I think it's pretty obvious that protection can only go so far in whistleblowing. If you upset your superiors, they will not resist their humanity to keep you on. A law that says "you can't terminate that person" would be useless because employers can always find a reason to terminate.

What protection can be offered would be something like protection from prosecution. Protection from government nuisance. Protection from lawsuit.

There is more to humanity than base impulse.

I agree that there sometimes exists philosopher kings and executives. But I also think it's a dice roll very much against the whistleblower's favor.

Some managers at OSHA need to be fired. Now. Names need to be named by the press.

We need much tougher labor law enforcement.

This is so meta ...

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