Editor’s Note: Investigative journalist Alison Greene recently recommended this interview to her Substack readers, calling it “one of the most important conversations I’ve heard in a long time.” I am very grateful, but more important is the work she and her It’s Up to Us movement are doing to fight back against efforts to rig the voter rolls in many states. Learn more here and watch for our followup interview with Alison June 29, where we’ll discuss steps we all can take to help protect the vote in the upcoming mid-term elections.
By Bob Gatty
Donald Trump famously called the news media “the enemy of the people.”
But according to whistleblower advocate Marcel Reid, the real danger comes when journalists, whistleblowers, and ordinary citizens become too afraid to speak the truth.
In this powerful episode of the Lean to the Left podcast, Reid warns that democracy itself depends on the free flow of information.
“Democracies, republics don’t last if people don’t know the truth,” she says. “People can’t participate from a position of knowing the truth if every source for the truth is shut down.”
A former ACORN whistleblower, Reid has spent years helping others navigate the painful consequences of exposing wrongdoing. Today, she organizes the annual Whistleblower Summit for Civil and Human Rights, bringing together journalists, government employees, military personnel, and ordinary citizens who have risked everything to tell the truth.
Reid explains how investigative journalists rely on whistleblowers to uncover corruption and abuse.
“Whistleblowers are protected by the press, and the press is able to report because of whistleblowers,” she says. “If you break either end of that balance, then people don’t have access to information.”
The conversation also explores:
- Trump’s attacks on journalists and media organizations;
- Why fewer Americans are willing to report wrongdoing;
- The devastating personal cost of whistleblowing;
- Guardianship and conservatorship abuse affecting vulnerable Americans;
- Why courage and truth-telling matter now more than ever.
If democracy is to survive, Reid argues, Americans must defend not only elections, but also the people willing to expose the truth.