The
annual Ridenhour Awards are being held this afternoon in Washington, D.C. The
event, of which GAP is a sponsor, is generally seen as the annual major awards
and event recognition for the past year’s whistleblowers and truth-tellers. You
can watch the event starting live at 12:15 or so at www.ridenhour.org.
The
events are held in honor of Ron Ridenhour. In 1969, former Vietnam veteran
Ridenhour wrote a letter to Congress and the Pentagon describing the horrific
events at My Lai – the infamous massacre of the Vietnam War – bringing the
scandal to the attention of the American public and the world. Ridenhour later
became a respected investigative journalist, winning the George Polk Award for
Investigative Journalism in 1987 for a year-long investigation of a New Orleans
tax scandal. He died suddenly in 1998 at the age of 52.
A
couple of this year’s prize recipients include:
Former
Justice Department lawyer Thomas Tamm, who has been awarded The Ridenhour Prize
for Truth-Telling. Tamm courageously exposed the existence of the government's
secret warrantless wiretapping program to The New York Times. Tamm recently participated
in a GAP panel at the National Whistleblower Assembly held in early March. The
panel, which was hosted by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack, can be seen
on GAP’s Web site here.
Previous
recipients of the award include GAP clients Robert Vance and Rick Piltz.
Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: The
Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,
has been awarded The Ridenhour Book Prize for “her damning indictment of how
the United States made self-destructive decisions in the wake of 9/11 that not
only violated the Constitution and American values, but also hindered the
pursuit of Al Qaeda.” Mayer also recently participated in a panel discussion on
GAP’s television program Whistle Where You Work, in which she discussed
the trends and future of investigative reporting in America.
Much
of the information about the event and recipients above is taken directly from
the Ridenhour award’s Web site, www.ridenhour.org
--
Dylan Blaylock
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