Getting leaky
the true crime that's worth your time
Daniel Ellsberg, the political figure perhaps best known for his role in leaking the Pentagon Papers, died Friday at the age of 92. If you’re hazy on Ellsberg’s role in bringing down the Nixon administration, this UMassAmherst explainer is a great one, and a page that will likely get a lot of views when Paul Jay’s doc, How to Stop Nuclear War, is released (date remains TBA). Ellsberg did over 40 hours of interviews for the film, The Hollywood Reporter notes, a capper in a career during which he was played by James Spader and Matthew Rhys in adaptations of his whistleblowing; he’s also the central figure in at least four major docs as well as a tertiary one in countless others.
In terms of folks who faced imprisonment or worse for leaking secret information, Ellsberg might be one of the best-known names in true crime circles, but there are certainly others: NSA leaker Reality Winner (what a name!), whose story is told in the recently released HBO drama Reality; Edward Snowden of CitizenFour fame; and no list of whistleblowers is complete without mentioning Frank Serpico, in my opinion.
There are so many more folks I could mention, but this is supposed to be a thread, so I’m going to cut myself off here. What true crime properties, in your opinion, best portray the danger and complexity of leaking? Which ones left you cold? And what current whistleblowers do you think deserve the true crime treatment? Let’s hear it. — EB