In Dec. 2010, blogger Glenn Greenwald (a WikiLeaks supporter) explained journalistic independence to a CNN correspondent. WikiLeaks website is here. This leaked video (with more than 15 million YouTube views) shows the killing of employees of the Reuters news agency and wounding of children by a US attack helicopter in Iraq.
Photo above (click on blank rectangle) was taken in August 2012 when I visited the Ecuadoran embassy in London after WikiLeaks' founder had taken refuge inside; I was there days after the British government threatened to invade the embassy, a serious breach of international law.
Following in WikiLeaks footsteps is a new U.S.-based group, ExposeFacts.org. (Full disclosure: I am an advisor).
On the 2016 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, the United States has fallen to 41st out of 180 countries -- largely because of "the government's war on whistleblowers who leak information about its surveillance activities, spying and foreign operation, especially those linked to counter-terrorism."
The man who inspired Edward Snowden to become a whistleblower was a previously brave NSA officer named Thomas Drake, who suffered consequences of a prosecution and now survives by working in an Apple store.
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