Whistleblowing (i.e. saying too much) in government and poetry.

From a Peter Van Buren article recently reprinted in SALON about the Obama Administration's dislike of whistleblowers; this could also be interpreted in the context of when poets speak out about perceived inequities (favoring friends/acolytes not so much for quality of writing but because they are friends/acolytes) or less-than-ethical behavior in their communities.  Highlighting by me:

Government bureaucrats know that this sort of slow-drip intimidation keeps people in line. It may, in the end, be less about disciplining a troublemaker than offering visible warning to other employees. They are meant to see what’s happening and say, “Not me, not my mortgage, not my family!” — and remain silent. Of course, creative, thoughtful people also see this and simply avoid government service.
In this way, such a system can become a self-fulfilling mechanism in which ever more of the “right kind” of people chose government service, while future “troublemakers” self-select out — a system in which the punishment of leakers becomes the pre-censorship of potential leakers.