YouTube Used for Whistleblowing

A Lockheed Martin engineer with concerns about critical flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats did just about the only thing left he could think of to get action after being ignored by his superiors: He made a video and posted it on YouTube.com.

A Web site normally reserved for  funny movies may seem an odd place to blow the whistle on security flaws that require complex technical explanations. But with millions of hits a day, YouTube.com and similar sites have become an alluring place for insiders like De Kort who want to go directly to the public when they think no one within the system is listening.

"This is an excellent example of the democratization of the media, where everyone has access to the printing press of the 21st century," said Dina Kaplan, co-founder of Blip.tv, a site that hosts grass-roots television programming.