In Books and Movies, Whistleblowers Tell All – The Wall Street Journal

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Books, movies and television are taking a page from politics and making it a big moment for whistleblowers. Protagonists who take on the powerful draw in audiences as they wrestle with moral conflicts, huge risks, divided loyalties and complex truths.

In theaters Friday, “The Kill Team,” inspired by a true story, explores a military whistleblower’s attempt to expose murders by his platoon in Afghanistan. The HBO drama “Succession,” whose second season just ended, hinged on a whistleblower’s threat to a corporate giant. Memoirs out this month on the Cambridge Analytica scandal written by former employees—“Mindf*ck” by

Christopher Wylie

and “Targeted” by

Brittany Kaiser

—brim with allegations about the improper use of data to influence elections.

“This is the age of the whistleblower,” writes

Tom Mueller

in “Crisis of Conscience,” a nearly 600-page analysis of whistleblowing and corruption. “Rarely have the voice and conscience of private citizens had more resonance.”

Whistleblowers in arts and entertainment often are depicted as heroes whose stories end in triumph, but in real life, their fates are far less certain. Many are unknowns whose allegations won’t be championed in the media, heeded by employers or investigated by authorities. Even dedicated workers with solid records may be committing career suicide, blacklisted not just by a company but an entire industry. Divorce, depression, unemployment and financial struggles often follow their solitary acts.

“It was a difficult period—isolating, worrying and being unsure of the future or the outcome,” said

Katharine Gun,

the whistleblower played by

Keira Knightley

in this summer’s docu-drama “Official Secrets.” The movie hinges on whether

Ms. Gun,

a British intelligence officer, will end up in jail after leaking secret information about an American scheme to force United Nations members to support the invasion of Iraq. The British government eventually dropped its case against her.

Last month, a CIA officer alleged that President

Trump

sought to use his office to press Ukraine’s leader into launching an investigation into Democratic rival

Joe Biden,

triggering an impeachment inquiry by Congress. The president has denied any wrongdoing and called the whistleblower’s complaint a fraud.

In recent years, whistleblowers have helped expose unlawful car emissions at

Volkswagen,

faulty blood-testing methods at Theranos and toxic-lead levels in drinking water in Flint, Mich. Whistleblower lawsuits have recovered more than $60 billion in federal funds and helped prevent another $1 trillion in losses since 1986,

Mr. Mueller

writes in his book, published this month. Over the past two decades, more than 50 countries have enacted whistleblower laws often modeled on American statutes that protect insiders who come forward and offer financial incentives for speaking up, he adds.

The archetype has a long cinematic history.

Meryl Streep,

Rachel Weisz,

George Clooney,

Matt Damon

and

Al Pacino

have all played versions of whistleblowers.

“The conflict is so profound,” said

Michael Mann,

director and co-writer of “The Insider,” a 1999 film starring

Russell Crowe

as real-life tobacco industry whistleblower

Jeffrey Wigand.

“It’s very dramatic to do something that’s against all of your interests. Imagine a Fortune 500 company with a blank checkbook designed to destroy your life and make you question your own sanity—and yet the impulse to come forward is so strong that if you don’t, your inner self will be annihilated.”

The new movie, “The Kill Team,” grew out of a real-life whistleblower-intimidation case. Alexander Skarsgård plays an enigmatic commander leading his men to murder three unarmed civilians during the war in Afghanistan.

Mr. Skarsgård’s

Sergeant

Deeks

pressures soldier

Andrew Briggman,

played by

Nat Wolff,

to keep quiet. Deeks shows off the severed fingers he has taken as battlefield trophies and vows to expand his collection should Briggman speak up. “Leave me alone,” the soldier says. “You are alone,” Deeks tells him.

“The idea of violating that camaraderie to stand up for what you believe is right, it’s almost unthinkably challenging, emotionally and logistically,” said

Dan Krauss,

who directed “The Kill Team” and a 2013 documentary about the episode.

Filmmakers also are drawn to corporate whistleblowers. In “Bombshell,” debuting this December,

Nicole Kidman

stars as former

Fox

News anchor

Gretchen Carlson,

whose lawsuit accusing late Fox News CEO

Roger

Ailes of sexual harassment led to his ouster and was followed by similar allegations from former Fox News anchor

Megyn Kelly,

played in the film by

Charlize Theron.

(The Wall Street Journal parent

News Corp

and Fox News parent Fox Corp. share common ownership.)

On TV earlier this month, an episode of “Succession” featured scheming media heiress

Shiv Roy

defending her family’s company by convincing a whistleblower not to testify before Congress.

“For two or three days you’re going to be kind of famous, but then the caravan moves on,” she tells the witness. “From tomorrow, that’s all you’ll ever be to your grandkids, to the people you meet on vacation, when they google you, pages and pages of filth and lies, the first line of your obituary.”

Publishing is a popular landing pad for whistleblowers. Last month marked the arrival of “Permanent Record,” a memoir by

Edward Snowden,

the former intelligence contractor who leaked classified documents on government surveillance programs. The U.S. Justice Department immediately filed a civil lawsuit to seize proceeds from the book, alleging it violated non-disclosure agreements. In a statement, publisher Macmillan supported

Mr. Snowden

and defended the book.

Some whistleblowers experienced difficulties in childhood that they believe made them more sensitive to injustice. In his book,

Mr. Wylie

describes growing up gay with a medical condition that confined him to a wheelchair during high school.

“From that point on, I’ve a developed a characteristic to call stuff out,” he said in an interview. A data scientist who helped set up Cambridge

Analytica,

the 30-year-old London-based author was the first to come forward publicly about the company. He participated in government investigations and testified in Washington. “You kind of need a little bit of chutzpah to sit in front of Congress and be like, ‘Guys, there’s a problem,’ ” he said.

Kory Langhofer,

a lawyer for former Cambridge Analytica CEO

Alexander Nix,

objected to claims in Mr. Wylie’s memoir. “We don’t view him as blowing a whistle. So much of what he has said has been invented,” he said, alleging that Mr. Wylie left the company on bad terms. “He has an ax to grind.”

The Cambridge Analytica controversy revolves around whether the British consulting firm improperly obtained and exploited user data from

Facebook.

In a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Facebook recently agreed to pay a $5 billion fine and add new oversight to its privacy practices. Facebook, which hasn’t admitted or denied wrongdoing, didn’t respond to requests to comment.

Cambridge Analytica, which declared bankruptcy last year, has denied misconduct in the Facebook affair. The firm acquired its data lawfully and later deleted it at Facebook’s request,

Mr. Langhofer

said.

Whistleblowers can be polarizing figures who have contributed to the very abuse they claim is occurring. That ambiguity is at play in “Targeted,” the memoir by

Ms. Kaiser,

former business-development director at Cambridge Analytica.

“The heartbreaking thing about being a whistleblower is that you have to have been involved in something in order to whistleblow on it,” she said in an interview. “There are some people that will never understand that and will never forgive you.”

The 31-year-old Texas native, who provided documents to authorities and wasn’t charged with any offense, is at the center of “The Great Hack,” a documentary about Cambridge Analytica that debuted on

Netflix

over the summer. The filmmakers first tracked down Ms. Kaiser in Thailand while she was hiding out after alleging unethical practices at the company.

“We looked for someone on a journey, about to jump off a cliff to a destination they don’t really know, someone who has a lot of stakes, and

Brittany

encompassed all that material,” said

Karim Amer,

who directed “The Great Hack” with Jehane Noujaim. “Following her allows us to see what it was like to go public and confront her own past.”