Thoughts on Whistleblowing Talent

Thoughts on Whistleblowing Talent

I’m a small-time whistleblower.  So I have to admit: we whistleblowers often lack real talent.  Sometimes we should just give it up.

A recent “This American Life” episode – I’m on TV?? – reminds me of this reality.  Producer Lina Minitzis considers the case of Harley Ott who once hoped for a starring role in the musical “Annie.”

As a child Minitzis wanted more than anything to perform in musicals.  She sang and danced along with CDs of musicals.  She posted on her bedroom walls pictures of Ethel Merman and Bernadette Peters.  She tried out at auditions.  And she watched a 1997 Barbara Walters special on the nationwide search for a new star for “Annie” which was returning to Broadway.

Harley Ott was one among thousands of contestants. With her wavy red hair and chubby cheeks, she looked perfect for the role.  But when her turn came to sing, she couldn’t do it.  She said she got scared sometimes.  The director still loved her and told her to sit with him, watch, and calm down. 

She got another shot in the finals.  Again, she sounded terrible.  Later she got a third chance to overcome her nervousness, not for the role of Annie but for another orphan girl.  When the director called her name, though, she could not be found.  Stage fright, Walters concluded.  It happens to even the most promising.  Poignant.

Twenty plus years later, Minitzi decided to find Ott and ask what happened.  Ott agreed to talk about the incident.  She says it wasn’t about stage fright that day.  She just can’t sing.  She has no pitch, she says.  Being there was no fun.  It was not right for her so she left.

It seems natural to have a childhood dream and then, after being smacked down by reality, abandon it or shift to a new, good-enough dream.  When I was young I wanted to be a pro golfer.  That didn’t work out.  I hoped to be an architect but couldn’t do that either.  Eventually I found I was good enough at finance to earn an enjoyable living.

Our dreams are often inspired by what we see others succeed at.  We too would like some of the praise or money they earn.  That also goes for whistleblowing.  Especially when we hope to protect society against wrongdoing.

For some people, whistleblowing is mostly about recovering what belongs to them (like overtime pay or job safety) or getting a reward for catching a bad guy (from tipping off the IRS or winning a false claims act lawsuit).  Those of us who disclose suspected violations of legal or ethical rules risk trying something we don’t have the talent for.  C. Fred Alford says we are moved by our “moral narcissism.”

When I complained about possible violations by HomeFirst Services, I probably should have known two important things.  First, HomeFirst was unlikely to change its ways.  And second, the authorities were not going to care about such small matters.  At the start, my attorney asked hopefully whether I could prove the company had defrauded the government.  If I had more talent for the game and could have done that, maybe he would have worked harder on my case.

Some other better known whistleblowers have lacked talent, too.  Take Reality Winner.  She got it into her head that the government wasn’t admitting evidence of Russian election interference.  Like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, she released classified information.  She used The Intercept, but it burned her.  The government released ample information soon enough anyway.  She got 5 years for her crime, and the more talented Mr. Snowden condemned her sentence from Russia.

After Harley Ott walked out of the New York audition hall, she went on to become a successful child actor.  Winner and I should also have walked away from our projects or, at least, come up with different approaches to them.  We could have done better, and the world would have been just fine.