1603

John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.

In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.

Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett's passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.

It said the 62-year-old had died from a "self-inflicted" wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 71 points 9 months ago

Weird, but I read this article and before it said specifically that he died from a gunshot wound. Looks like it's been updated (or redacted) to leave that bit out. Originally it said he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

So Boeing executives murdered a whistleblower. huh.

Being in Quality Control myself, I've always felt pressure from higher ups around some of our bigger findings. Cool to know if I ever find something too big they'll just straight up murder me.

[-] alekwithak@lemmy.world 42 points 9 months ago

I've thought about this way too much and if you seriously think you're in danger, there's a few things you can do. Obviously lots of security cameras with local and off-site backups. Then hidden cameras, whatever spy cameras you can find, with an SD card in each. Then you need to create a deadman switch. Something you must interact with at least daily or it automatically uploads all your videos and documents etc everywhere it can, and / or sends them to your lawyer or journalists if you think you can trust them. I err on the side of public release as well because as long as it's in the public eye it will be subject to scrutiny. That's also why I'd start establishing a social media presence. "HI I'm X, I blew the whistle on Y. There's a hearing scheduled for Z and I would like to once again publicly state that I don't have any current medical or mental health issues and I have no plans to ever take my own life. Anyway here's how to make waffles" or whatever.

[-] Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 9 months ago

I've thought about this a lot too and I don't even have a job where I need to worry about it. The best way is really to just stay in the public eye and be as transparent as legally possible. I considered just fucking live streaming most of my life on twitch if I needed too. Car cam, house cam, go pro on my person, etc.

[-] alekwithak@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

A 24-hour live stream is brilliant.

I'd still do a hidden cam or two in your car and other places you're likely to switch networks and lose your stream for a moment.

[-] John_McMurray@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

Something strange like that happened after that Sri Lankan family was murdered in Ontario. Was referred to as a mass shooting until no, wait, was a knife.

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Sometimes reporters get details of the story wrong. I don't know what's so strange about that.

[-] ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

That is perfectly fine, but any corrections or changes should be noted and explained, not quietly changed.

[-] John_McMurray@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Bit of a lack of professionalism there.

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Crime journalists write what the cops say. Blame the source, not the messenger.

[-] John_McMurray@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

That's...a bit of a lack pf professionalism too. Way too common now.

this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
1603 points (99.2% liked)

News

23627 readers
2490 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS