We get our important news from the people who have to sneak it out the side door, since the media only mediate what their wealthy owners permit. Why aren’t the people who try to put these people in jail, in jail?
The truth ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when
I’m stuck with politicians who lie both night and day
When I hear that whistleblower it blows my blues away
The bribery was rampant, the corruption everywhere
The boys in blue in New York kept the people unaware
Beyond the wall of silence the truth would never flow
But someone had to be Frank, and it was Serpico
Those liars in the government destroying Vietnam
Along came Daniel Ellsberg and he dropped a different bomb
Purloined Pentagon papers, the secret war exposed
You never know how who’s lying until the whistle blows
With Nixon in the White House, paranoia was the rule
They bugged the opposition, which is totally uncool
The ship of state was listing, it was a leaky boat
They’d have never got the plumbers if not for good ol’ Deep Throat
Now no one was allowed to know if Israel had a stash
Of nuclear devices, to turn us all to ash
It took a whistleblower to bring us all the news
What is it that we’re needin? More Mordecai Vanunus
And while we’re talking of things nuclear remember Kerr-McGee
They said atomic power would set the nation free
Then up spoke Karen Silkwood, “you’re tamp’ring with our lives”
When I think of what she went through, I hang my head and cry
Now the CIA is known to all as freedom-fighting blokes
Yes they fight for freedom for the one percent of folks
No they’d never stoop to torture, that’s such a wack world view
But then we learned of waterboarding from John Kiriaku
They were violating privacy, fourth amendment rights
The boys down at the NSA had us all in their sights
The abuse of public trust there, it really takes the cake
But we found out all about it, thank you Thomas Drake
We would never know the war crimes of the army in Iraq
Were it not for secret footage showing murderous attacks
More tortures they were planning, if they could keep it mum
Thank God for Chelsea Manning, come on, let’s give him some
When he was just a contractor for NSA and such
Ed Snowden figured out we were all spied upon too much
He found the files to prove it, these crimes we all condemn
Now when Big Brother tries to snow us, we’ll wiki leak on them
Well I voted for the new guy, they all said he would be great
By the time we knew his wily ways, it was years too late
Charged more whistleblowers than all the ones before
When I saw how I’d been taken, I hung my head and swore
Well if they freed me from this prison, stopped the secrecy and lies
I bet I would be sharp enough to cut them down to size
Democracy will flourish, the truth shall set us free
When you hear that whistle blowin’, it blows for you and me