History Main / CantStopTheSignal

* ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange: The Oath'' involves Strange's efforts to recover a magical potion which was stolen from him by a pharmaceuticals company intent upon WithholdingTheCure. The CEO winds up dead in a way which looks like suicide by the end of it, and it looks like no one will know what they've done, but one of Strange's allies finds his "[[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade we have to kill 'em all]]" memo to the board of directors and proceed to fax it far and wide.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''ComicBook/Hardware1993''. This is the first thing the protagonist tries, anonymously sending the media all the evidence he's gathered on Alva's wrongdoing. And the media pointedly ignores it.
* The original ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' plays this slightly differently to [[Film/{{Watchmen}} the film]] (see below) -- Rorschach puts his diary in a mailbox before the {{denouement}}, and we only discover its destination at the very end. Whether the world finds out (let alone whether they ''should'') is [[AmbiguousEnding left ambiguous]], and the reader is asked to decide.
* The ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' issue [[http://www.4thletter.net/2006/11/the-top-100-what-if-countdown-part-19/ "What If Gwen Stacy Had Lived?"]] (vol. 1, #24) concludes with a reversal of this trope, in that it's the ''villain'' who sends information to the press rather than the hero. The Green Goblin posts evidence of ComicBook/SpiderMan's SecretIdentity to the hero's "second-greatest enemy": [[DaEditor J. Jonah Jameson]].

* The Internet in general. Since it's so integrated into our lives and ''anyone'' can post pretty much ''anything'', news travels faster than Franchise/TheFlash. Also, since the Internet is so touchy about censorship, any attempt to ''stop'' the signal results in it spreading even faster. See the StreisandEffect and ForbiddenFruit entries.

** Morgans does it again at the end of the Wano Country arc, when he publishes the aftermath of the Onigashima War: [[spoiler:[[WorldsStrongestMan Kaido of the Four Emperors]], [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable defeated by Straw Hat Luffy]], who has now taken his position (along with a new picture for Luffy's wanted poster, showing him transformed into the Sun God Nika, while refusing to remove the "[[SecretLegacy D.]]" from his name)]] He gets the information from [[RefugeInAudacity tapping on the World Government fleet]] stationed outside of Wano Country at the time, whose transmission was cut off after they were attacked by the Big Mom Pirates.

Compare and contrast the villainous counterpart, DoNotAdjustYourSet. Also contrast HaveYouToldAnyoneElse See also InformationWantsToBeFree, YouCannotKillAnIdea, IrrevocableMessage, and IMadeCopies.

* Attempted in ''Film/GoodGuysWearBlack'' (1978), only for the BigBad to reveal that the only witness who can verify the story has just been admitted to a mental hospital. Creator/ChuckNorris then decides to settle the matter [[VigilanteExecution via more direct means]].

A character [[BrokenMasquerade breaks]] TheMasquerade by sending the details they have uncovered to the press -- often to multiple publications at once, so that the envelopes can't be intercepted. Usually happens at the end of a work.

* In ''Film/ChainReaction'', the good guy releases to the world the details of the machine allowing production of functionally unlimited energy by [[TechMarchesOn faxing it]] to news offices everywhere.

-> ''"So I called that guy I know at NBC. And then I got to thinking -- You know what I hate? I hate those lame action movies where the good guy calls just one person who ends up betraying him. So I called ABC, CBS, The Post, The Times, the local news channel, and the FBI."''

* ''Manga/{{Akumetsu}}'' uses this ''continuously.'' [[spoiler:And, when the government decides to stop him from broadcasting his final "movie" on hijacked TV signals, he puts it all over the internet.]]

* A {{subver|tedTrope}}sion in Creator/MilestoneComics' ''Comicbook/Hardware1993''. This is the first thing the protagonist tries, anonymously sending the media all the evidence he's gathered on Alva's wrongdoing. And the media pointedly ignores it.
* The ComicBook/SpiderMan ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' issue [[http://www.4thletter.net/2006/11/the-top-100-what-if-countdown-part-19/ "What If Gwen Stacy Had Lived?"]] (v1 #24) concludes with a reversal of this trope, in that it's the ''villain'' who sends information to the press rather than the hero. The Green Goblin posts evidence of Spider-Man's SecretIdentity to the hero's "second-greatest enemy": [[DaEditor J. Jonah Jameson]].
* The original ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' plays this slightly differently to the film (see below) -- Rorschach puts his diary in a mailbox before the {{denouement}}, and we only discover its destination at the very end. Whether the world finds out (let alone whether they ''should'') is [[AmbiguousEnding left ambiguous]], and the reader is asked to decide.

* ''Film/Serenity2005'', the {{Trope Namer|s}} -- the heroes use the late [[KnowledgeBroker Mr. Universe's]] equipment to broadcast the truth about Miranda and "Pax" to the four corners of the 'verse.
-->'''Mr. Universe:''' Mal. Guy killed me, Mal. He killed me with a sword. How weird is that? I got a short span here. They destroyed my equipment, but I have a backup unit. Bottom of the complex. Right over the generator. Hard to get to. I know they missed it. They [[TropeNamers can't stop the signal]], Mal. They can never stop the signal.

* ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'' ends with this, exposing the program. A SubvertedTrope according to ''Film/TheBourneLegacy'', as the attempt was in fact stopped. In that film, the government is killing off everyone connected to the program. ProfessionalKiller Aaron tells scientist Marta that if she doesn't want to go into hiding, her only chance for survival is to go public. The rest of the series plays with this: maybe the signal can't be stopped, but the possibilities of [[SinisterSpyAgency the CIA]] [[HeKnowsTooMuch deciding to murder you anyway]] or finding a way to discredit you are absurdly high.

* ''Film/GreenZone'' ends with the hero mass-E-mailing to multiple press agencies through the world evidence of the corruption [[SinisterSpyAgency within U.S. Intelligence]] (namely their faked "Magellan" contact) that led to the start of the Second Gulf War (the alleged existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Irak) and [[WarForFunAndProfit their attempt at setting a puppet government]] ([[spoiler:which [[ShaggyDogStory just ended quite futilely]]]]). Paul Greengrass likes this one.
* In ''Film/ChainReaction'', the good guy releases to the world the details of the machine allowing production of functionally unlimited energy by [[TechMarchesOn faxing it]] to news offices everywhere.
* In ''Film/TheConstantGardener'', when Justin sends a letter to his friend containing details of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive a pharmacy company]]'s unscrupulous testing methods for their medicines, knowing he's about to be murdered for knowing too much. His friend reads it out as his eulogy.

* ''Film/DefenceOfTheRealm'': [[spoiler:Though Nick and Nina are both killed at the end, the story Nick wrote, and that Nina sent out - about how the British government framed MP Dennis Markham for being a Soviet spy to cover up the story he was going to expose about a petty criminal being able to sneak into an American Air Force base - gets published in Europe, and the fact a British journalist was murdered for writing the story gets the rest of the British press writing about the story]].

* A very different version of this particular trope: two people in the ''Film/{{Apocalypse}}'' film series movie ''Revelation'' who have taken the MarkOfTheBeast try to stop the anti-Day of Wonders virus program from uploading by pulling out the disk from the computer and even shooting the computer it's uploading on, all to no avail as it miraculously continues to boot up. Unfortunately, this plan [[YouCantThwartStageOne only delays the Day of Wonders program from being released worldwide]], as it shows up in full use in the following movie ''Tribulation''.

* ''Film/PromisingYoungWoman'': After she's murdered during her quest for vengeance, it turns out Cassie did this as a Xanatos Gambit. A couple of months later, she sent her final message to Jordan to tell him that she was murdered by Al with all the evidence of where and when it happened, which leads to the police finding the body. To get justice for Nina, Cassie set up the video of Nina's rape to be sent around to everyone on Al's wedding guest list, meaning that he could no longer deny he'd raped her and that everybody knew.

* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' has a small-town variation on this. As he escapes and takes all of the secret kickback money out of false bank accounts, Andy drops a package of hard proof of the warden's crimes into the outgoing mail. That gets sent to the local newspaper; in the next scene, the front-page article indicting the prison warden is shown on the Warden's desk, just as the cops are trying to beat down his office door.

* In TheMovie of ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', Rorschach sends his diary to [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Not The]] ''[[ConspiracyTheorist Weekly World News]]'' before the big showdown. At the end a writer is sent to dig through the "crank file" for a story, but it's ambiguous as to whether the journal was chosen or not.
* The U.S. version of ''Film/StateOfPlay'' ends with a credits montage of Cal and Della's story on Point Corp going to print.
* ''Film/ManOfSteel'', Lois Lane is told by Perry that he refuses to publish her article about a mysterious man of alien origin with superpowers wandering the country incognito. Lois Lane gives the article to an alternative media site's owner instead, who puts it online.
* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'': [[spoiler:All of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s information is unencrypted and leaked online, thus stealing all advantage HYDRA might gain.]] Apparently, it started trending.
* In the final act of ''Film/RogueOne'', [[spoiler:Jyn Erso and her companions travel to an Imperial base on the planet Scarif in order to steal the Death Star schematics and relay them to the Rebel fleet above. All of her companions except Cassian die in the ensuing battle, but during the conflict Jyn reaches a computer on the top of the Citadel Tower and transmits the schematics to the Rebel flagship. Once receiving the blueprints, the Rebels copy the data and rush to get as far away from the planet as possible, with the Empire in close pursuit, setting up the events of ''Film/ANewHope''. Jyn and Cassian are eventually killed by the Death Star's superlaser firing on its own base as a failed last resort]].
* At the end of ''[[Literature/{{VALIS}} Radio Free Albemuth]]'', [[spoiler:as a political prisoner, the main character hears over a radio that the resistance-song has been released, justifying his sacrifice in getting it to the public]].
* ''Film/TheNiceGuys'' ultimately fail to [[spoiler:prevent Amelia's murder, but they do find her]] and discover the whistleblowing significance of the porno movie they had thought was just a lead. The rest of the film is about their attempt to keep the last surviving copy out of the hands of [[spoiler:Amelia's killers]].
* Attempted in ''Good Guys Wear Black'' (1978), only for the BigBad to reveal that the only witness who can verify the story has just been admitted to a mental hospital. Creator/ChuckNorris then decides to settle the matter [[VigilanteExecution via more direct means]].
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgdE-qPv6kw The final words]] in ''Deadline U.S.A.'' (1952), one of Creator/HumphreyBogart's finest later films. He's speaking to a gangster he's about to bring down in the final issue of his paper just before it's bought out and closed down.
-->''"That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. '''Nothing!'''"''
* ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic'': The [=LoTeks=] transmit the cure for NAS stored in Johnny's head around the world in the end.

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's short story "Literature/TheDeadPast", a man discovers the secret of {{chronoscop|e}}y (a machine that can view the past), which has been placed under government control. He releases the information to several publicity outlets so it will become public, then learns ''why'' the government suppressed it. It can look at any place at any sufficiently recent time... which means there is no privacy, since there are no limitations on how ''close'' to the present it can look. The government knew about this before (it was their motivation for their draconian rules, the intent being to keep it out of the public's hands and unused), but once the protagonists invent a cheap and simple way to duplicate the technology and spread it widely, everyone can look at anyone at any time. The government even admits that their own agents have used it for indiscreet purposes.
* In Creator/FrankHerbert's short story "Committee of the Whole", a man uses the broadcast of a U.S. Senate hearing to describe a cheap, easily-built laser that could cut the Earth in half like a ripe tomato. He then spends several pages trying to justify distributing information that could allow any madman to destroy the planet. He later admits he had distributed the information far and wide earlier.
* In ''Literature/TheGapCycle'', Stephen R. Donalson uses this in the climax, giving humanity its best defense against the Amnion.
* Literature/SherlockHolmes does this before he ends Moriarty once and for all.
* The old InteractiveFiction adaptation of/sequel to ''Literature/Fahrenheit451'' ended with Montag publicly broadcasting the contents of a lot of the banned books.
* Robert Harris' ''Literature/{{Fatherland}}'' ends with an [[BolivianArmyEnding ambiguous]] use of this; what we see is what the main character hopes/believes is happening, not necessarily what is. [[Film/{{Fatherland}} The film of the book]] plays it straight.
* In Greg Iles' ''The Footprints of God'', the main character exposes the AI project he's working on after he recovers from a coma.

* Literature/{{Serpico}} makes futile attempts to get his various police superiors and the Mayor's office to do something about police corruption, but it's only when he and his colleagues go to the ''New York Times'' that a proper inquiry is held, not only into corruption but how it's allowed to flourish. This only makes Serpico a greater target, however.

* The ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' {{novelization}} reveals that the Na'vi and scientists sent a message to Earth (either by SubspaceAnsible or radio, but either way it would beat the RDA {{Sleeper Ship}}s there) about the RDA's actions on Pandora to incite public opinion against the MegaCorp trying to retaliate against their eviction.
* In ''Literature/AncillaryJustice'', Breq's plan for revenge against [[TheEmperor Anaander Mianaai]] is to reveal his secret actions to ''herself'', leaving her unable to deny the [[SplitPersonality split]] in the HiveMind that composes her. This succeeds, plunging the Anaander Mianaai into civil war against the other parts of herself.
* Villainous example at the climax of ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance''. The humans win the Battle of Narak, crushing the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Voidbringers]]. But it's already too late. The Voidbringers have had time to release a magical signal that will transform all the parshmen into Voidbringers, and there are parshmen ''everywhere''. The enemy may have lost twenty or thirty thousand Voidbringers at Narak, but he'll soon have twenty or thirty ''million'' to replace them.
* In the first book of ''Literature/TheNexusSeries'', the protagonist Kade and his friends have invented Nexus 5 -- a way to cheaply and efficiently boost one's mind and body by injecting nanomachines and running software on them. This has the potential of having ''enormous'' consequences for the whole of humanity -- in both good and bad ways. Concerned that humanity might choose the bad over the good if given Nexus and left to its own devices, and suddenly finding themselves on the run from a number of conservative government entities who want to shut down the "outbreak" before it starts, the protagonists spend most of the first book closely guarding the source code to their creation. At the end, [[spoiler:Kade finally realizes humanity deserves to choose its own path, and releases the source code on the Internet. The NSA ''almost'' looks like it's about to end it... but there's always ''someone'' who's continuing the chain, resulting in the code ultimately spreading far and wide and changing the balance of power forever]].
* Literature/JohnRain
** In ''A Clean Kill in Tokyo'', Rain finds himself up against this problem with the MacGuffin, a computer disk with a list of Japanese officials involved in corruption. Due to the nature of the Japanese media, no-one will touch such a potentially divisive story, so Rain gives the disk to a US journalist who can publish the story overseas, allowing the Japanese media to comment on it. Unfortunately, the journalist is then murdered, putting them back to square one.
** In ''The Detachment'', Rain discovers a GovernmentConspiracy to launch a FalseFlagOperation in the United States and asks his friend in the CIA why he can't just leak it to the newspapers. He points out that the New York Times has changed a lot since the Watergate days, and that they sat on a story of illegal domestic surveillance until after the election... so when they finally uncover undeniable proof of the conspiracy, they release it on Wikileaks instead.
* {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': magical rituals can be performed by anyone, and magical ''summoning'' rituals can be particularly bad if they summon ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. However, the likelihood of a ritual working is inversely proportional to the number of times it is attempted: the more people try to summon a devil, the less likely it is for the devil to show up, to the point that you can reduce the chance to zero if you disseminate the information enough. Thus, the White Council's standard practice when they find a particularly bad ritual spell is to tell ''everyone'' about it by publishing a book, almost immediately invalidating the ritual.[[note]]This is, on occasion, a bad thing, however, as detailed by Thomas in the short story ''Backup''[[/note]] They were also responsible for sharing Dr. Van Helsing's research on vampires in the form of Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'', to allow ordinary mortals to fight back against and almost completely destroy the Black Court of vampires, aka the ones that were complete monsters with no moral compass or desire to remain hidden.
* In Desmond Bagley's spy thriller ''The Tightrope Men'', Giles Dennison has been kidnapped, brainwashed and altered by plastic surgery to take the place of KidnappedScientist Meyrick. Meyrick's British intelligence minders discover what's happen and convince Dennison to continue the impersonation. However Meyrick's daughter realises her 'father' is an imposter and threatens to go to the press unless Giles gets proper treatment for what's happened to him. When the intelligence minders say they'll suppress the story with a D Notice, she replies that she knows several student newspapers that would simply ignore it.

* Attempted in the season finale of ''Series/{{Alphas}}'' when [[spoiler: Dr. Rosen broadcasts testimony of the existence of alphas and the government's response. They eventually cut him off, but not until it's far too late.]]
* {{Averted|Trope}}, barely, in ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'' only because Duncan uses the Quickening to fry Paris' power grid and thus the computer holding the disk which holds information about Immortals and Watchers. Lucily, the BigBad of the season who had been using the that disk in an attempt to blackmail Duncan chose the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower as the site of their showdown, providing a convenient antenna to transmit the lightning from the Quickening.[[note]]Convenient, but in-character; the villain in question had a massive flair for the theatrical and saw the highest point in Paris as the ideal place to enact his vengeance against Duncan.[[/note]]
* ''Push Nevada'' (Creator/BenAffleck's gimmick show where a viewer could win the money stolen from an InUniverse casino) -- the protagonist sends his evidence to every email address he can find.
* Played with in the second season of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''. Whoever said that the unstoppable signal had to speak the truth?

* Series/{{Nikita}} often threatens this, but she never actually does it. The problem is that the actions that [[RogueAgent Division]] carried out could never be released to the world due to all of the problems it would cause.
* In ''Series/TheExpanse'':
** Episode 2: A Martian ship is about to grab the ''Canterbury's'' life pod and Holden thinks that the people who destroyed their ship are coming to finish them off so he sends a broad-spectrum message accusing Mars of destroying the ''Canterbury''. It causes riots to break out throughout the Belt. [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}} immediately afterwards because Holden turns out to be completely wrong; the whole thing was a FalseFlagOperation, and finding out who was really responsible takes them the rest of Season 1.]]
** Episode 5: A flashback shows a Belter protest earlier that was brutally taken down by the UNN, destroying an entire station inhabited not only by protesting miners but their children as well. After numerous offers to surrender were ignored one of the protest leaders sent a transmission showing his oxygen-deprived daughter and explaining that they were just trying to improve their kids' lives, which cuts off as the station is destroyed. Apparently, it was so effective that the assault's leader defected to the OPA.
* {{Defied|Trope}} in ''Series/{{V 1983}}''. IntrepidReporter Mike Donovan gets proof on video that the Visitors aren't friendly HumanAliens who come in peace, but mice-swallowing reptilians planning to TakeOverTheWorld. He gets the tape to the broadcast studio, and just as they're about to tell the world, all the stations cut out for a 'special announcement' that the Visitors have taken 'temporary' control of the media for our own good. In the follow-up series, LaResistance rip off a Visitor's face on live television. The Visitors claim it's a fake and show the 'real' broadcast the next day with the same audience managed at gunpoint to applaud on cue.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in the 1991 British mini-series ''For the Greater Good''. A politician's secretary leaks a Cabinet document to a newspaper, but not only do their lawyers advise them not to use it because they could be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, they actually send the papers back to the Cabinet office. The whistleblower is justly infuriated because this risks exposing her. She then has to try and find a sympathetic politician who can raise the matter in Parliament, allowing the press to legally comment on it.
* In the ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' episode "Bunker Hill", a slave uprising on Earth against the Drago-Kazof Nietscheans is crushed because the ''Andromeda Ascendant'' couldn't get there in time to provide air support, but the rebels get off a video message about the uprising that sparks similar uprisings all across the Drago-Kazof empire.

* Several ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' episode involve a government trying to keep something hidden. In one episode, a planet is demanding that the ''Excalibur'' hand over a refugee, promising him safe passage to the surface. The shuttle explodes mid-flight. They learn that the government has been purging great cultural works, and the man gave his life to save as many of them as he could, leaving the recordings aboard the ''Excalibur''. In another, a pre-hyperspace civilization's government is deliberately spreading conspiracy theories in order to blame aliens for any problems caused by the government's incompetence. Gideon, pissed that the government has chosen humans as the culprit, reveals the truth to the planet's people.

* This is the [[PhantomThief Yatagarasu's]] entire schtick in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations''. The Yatagarasu steals evidence of corruption from businesses and political offices, then sends it to the media to expose the truth. [[spoiler:They do this because they've lost faith in the legal system, and it's the only way they can bring some measure of justice to people above the law.]]

* This is what drives one of ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'''s branches, the Revolution/Matt Horner missions. [[spoiler:They manage to bring the truth to the Dominion's civilians, thus starting a revolution.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', this is the Refuse ending. The galaxy is being swarmed by a techno-horror HordeOfAlienLocusts led by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that destroy every advanced civilization in a cyclical manner. The PlayerCharacter has the option to obliterate or rewire them, but all of the possible choices involve great sacrifice and loss. Or the PlayerCharacter can simply refuse to accept any of their choices -- and then the bad guys win, all technologically advanced life is destroyed, but not before one of the TrueCompanions executes her plan to FlingALightIntoTheFuture. She does so not on a single planet, but on many planets that harbor intelligent (or potentially intelligent) life, with smart programs to aid decryption by any who find it and incredible volumes of data that would propel a society almost instantly to a space-faring one. This ensures the next invasion is the last one.

* ''Webcomic/SamAndFuzzy'' has Sam do this to expose vampires to the world as the first step of his plan to strip The Committee of their power by exposing the various supernatural species living in The Underground. Normally, the Committee's enforcers, the Erasers, check all forms of media and censor or filter out security breaks, but there is a threshold beyond which even they can't cover up the truth. In the vampires' case, Sam managed to reveal their existence to dozens of national news crews at once, making it impossible to shut down all of them, as the level of blackout required would just prove that someone is trying to cover things up.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* A big, ''big'' part of why the Website/SCPFoundation is so terrified of [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-096 SCP-096]] reaching a populated area. 096 will [[DontLookAtMe chase down and utterly destroy anyone who views its face, or a picture or video thereof]], and [[TheJuggernaut cannot be stopped from doing this by any means whatsoever]]. If a news crew caught even a ''single pixel'' of its face on camera, it would hunt down everyone who saw that footage... and the resulting violent rampages would guarantee even ''more'' news coverage, rapidly escalating to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* Part of the ''modus operandi'' of supervillain Brigand in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse''. First, he runs a huge ''Series/MissionImpossible'' style con on some CorruptCorporateExecutive types to steal money from them and make them reveal the really bad stuff they have been doing. Then he makes sure the media get all the details, while he makes his big escape.

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', the TropeNamer -- the heroes use the late [[KnowledgeBroker Mr. Universe's]] equipment to broadcast the truth about Miranda and "Pax" to the four corners of the 'verse.

* In the final act of ''Film/RogueOne'', [[spoiler:Jyn Erso and her companions travel to an Imperial base on the planet Scarif in order to steal the Death Star schematics and relay them to the Rebel fleet above. All of her companions except Cassian die in the ensuing battle, but during the conflict Jyn reaches a computer on the top of the Citadel Tower and transmits the schematics to the Rebel flagship. Once receiving the blueprints, the Rebels copy the data and rush to get as far away from the planet as possible, with the Empire in close pursuit. Jyn and Cassian are eventually killed by the Death Star's superlaser firing on its own base as a failed last resort]].

'''This is both an EndingTrope and frequently a DeathTrope; spoilers follow.'''

* The climax of ''Film/TheNet1995''.

** "[[{{catchphrase}} Big News]]" Morgans is a crooked, greedy news magnate, but the one thing he takes pride on is [[GoingForTheBigScoop his journalistic integrity.]] When the World Government sends a Cipher Pol agent to stop him (first with a bribe, then with threats of physical violence) from publishing a specific piece concerning an incident that took place during the Levely, he promptly beats up the agent, moves his entire workshop and has his people publish before the World Government decides to use more drastic measures.

* ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'' ends with this, exposing the program. A SubvertedTrope according to ''Film/TheBourneLegacy'', as the attempt was in fact stopped. In that film, the government is killing off everyone connected to the program. ProfessionalKiller Aaron tells scientist Marta that if she doesn't want to go into hiding, her only chance for survival is to go public.

* This is how ''Film/{{Clonus}}'' ends; the RetiredBadass IntrepidReporter Jake Noble is murdered, but manages to get a tape exposing the Clonus project to the media.