Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2020

Abstract

Much has been made of US President Donald Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and draconian policies lay bare the violence embedded in contemporary political discourse and power relations. While Trump’s verbal assaults on news workers are well documented and widely discussed, his efforts – and those of his immediate predecessor Barack Obama – to silence government whistleblowers receive far less scrutiny. Drawing on discourse theory and analysis, this paper explores the experience of three prominent leakers and the epistemic violence underpinning America’s war on whistleblowers.

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