Whistleblower versus leaker is not just a legal category. It is the question of who gets to decide what the public is allowed to know, and whether the people drawing that line can be trusted to draw it in the right place. Dr. Lee Kuhnle says they often cannot, and that is precisely why whistleblowers exist.

There is a specific thing that happened to Julian Assange worth sitting with. He did not steal any information. He published it, the way the Pentagon Papers were published, the way Watergate was published. What he faced was 17 indictments under the Espionage Act with a potential 175-year sentence. The conversation that followed spent most of a decade on his character. The video of Apache helicopters firing on civilians got less attention than whether Assange was likeable.

Secrets and privacy are not the same thing. Governments are not always the right ones to tell us which is which. Chelsea Manning knew that and said so out loud when she pled guilty.

Topics: whistleblower vs leaker, Julian Assange WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning, government secrecy, secrets vs privacy

GUEST: Dr. Lee Kuhnle | https://www.amazon.ca/Uncover-Up-Think-Clearly-Conspiracies/dp/1770418873/

Originally aired on2026-03-25