In the battle for the support of DC’s newspapers, whistleblowers are winning 2-1. As we reported yesterday, the Washington Post has come out against the comprehensive whistleblower protection provisions included in the economic stimulus package passed by the House of Representatives last week. The Post went so far as to say that the provisions should be pulled from the bill, and that protecting national security whistleblowers is "just plain wrong." (click here for a rebuttal to the Post editorial) Although this is disappointing, there are at least a couple of newspapers around town who got it right.
Today, the Washington Times endorsed the whistleblower provisions, highlighting a number of important and heroic whistleblowers in the article. Check it out here. Earlier this week, the Washington Independent also carried a lengthy article highlighting the proposed whistleblower laws, and even pointing out that there should probably be MORE protections included in the bill.