Idea for Curbing Political Curruption?

[GoNRA 12]

Creating a website with sponsers and membership fee's, something along the lines of "Citizens Against Corruption".

 

Media Attention - Give your website to media outlets and hope the report on it, lmfao

 

With the money recieved from that, you can create tip emails to report curruption and offer rewards for accurate info, kinda like the FBI does when it comes to finding someone who is high on the list, or bounty hunters.

 

Then information given in the email can be sent to either the U.S. Attorney's Office or the FBI for investigation. They seem to be the only justice departments that can deal with political curruption.

 

I think some kind of program along the lines of this would help curb alot of curruption, not all but alot especially here in New Jersey. With an incentive to turn their political buddies in, kind of like the cars for clunkers that took off.

[bbk 188]

The website for the writers of "The Soprano State" do not keep a live ticker/tip "hotline," but they do keep their site updated with the corruption that has occurred since they wrote their book: http://www.thesopranostate.com/update.htm

I'm with you, I think it would be a really great idea. The problem I see is that if someone is accused of corruption, and then it turns out to be false-- the accuser can be slapped with some form of legal repercussions. I think a way around that is to make the tipster site a sort of blog (which would give the blogger(s) freedom to write WHATEVER they want, as long as they add a disclaimer or something), but that might take away some creditability. I still think it would be really good to have a civilian whistleblower site because even if it is not taken as seriously by the authorities initially, if it can take roots, it could do some real good. Maybe someone who has some legal background could give some feedback.

 

To add: I know there are thousands of blogging sites that defame celebrities, but I think its a little different to tell terrible stories of a person and accuse someone of corruption. Further, the sites that try to do a lot of whistleblowing, like ATS, are pretty much jokes at this point. A middle ground would have to be met, and would have to be willing to be cannon fodder at times, considering how far some politicians in NJ are willing to go to protect their own hides.

[wsl 2]

You can legally get around it just by listing it differently. Put a charged/alleged list, then a convicted list. Its not false or demeaning propoganda if you're telling the truth. And then you can also add a "not guilty" list of those proven innocent.

[bbk 188]

Agreed, wsl. I'm just thinking that say politician X is accused, and turns out it is not true, he might still take the individuals who reported on him to court-- even if it will get thrown out-- to just run them bankrupt, unless their legal team is cheap, doing it for free, or sponsored. I would not put that past the weevils we have.

[wsl 2]

Nope, just list the source - ie paper or blog, etc.. and you're home free. Same with a disclaimer page stating that its not an attack, just a reprint of public information for tracking purposes. Just make sure to be prompt on linking the date of conviction or aquittal with the same item, so it can't be accused of still accusing them if they've already been proven otherwise. So those on the Not-guilty list would have to remain on the alleged list but with a link and info updating the fact they were found innocent.

[bbk 188]

so, where do we began? 8-)