A law on whistle-blowers does not protect them from retaliation if they take their case to the media, ruled a federal appeals court in San Francisco. The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act only protects whistle-blowers if they report suspected fraud to federal regulators, Congress or a workplace supervisor.
In so ruling the court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by Boeing auditors fired in 2007 for telling a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter that they were being pressured to file favorable reports. -db
From the San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 2011, by Bob Egelko.