Whistle

I think it's generally a good thing for the people to be aware of what their government does without their knowledge. Edward Snowden was a good example, he alerted us to what the NSA was doing by collecting our data. Of course, they are human, so some certainly do have their ulterior motives.

Traitor and hero are two extreme titles that don't leave much in between...I'm not sure you could lump whistle blowers into either category in general. That said, there are certainly some that would fall into either. Generally speaking though I think they are both necessary and good to have, keeping all the game players honest. Sort of the referee of politics and economics.

All I Can say is their Necessary
乁( ⁰͡ Ĺ̯ ⁰͡ ) ㄏ

I don't know about hero, but it's good for it to happen (as long as it's true)

Can't have corruption and abuse of power running rampant

Depends on who they're blowing the whistle against...

Snitches get riches!

a whistle blower ay' i like thing's that blow.

In a certain way both, and in another certain way, neither.
Normally the term "whistleblower" is only used when we speak of a country, company, organization, whatchamacallit, doing things that are definitely unethical, or even illegal. Of course, those who are accused are never happy about the revelations, no matter how true they are. When it handles defamation, in other words, lies, then we can't speak of a whistleblower, can we? So let's just keep it to cases where the accusations are actually true. Then we can at least speak of people who did the right thing, or at least what they felt themselves to be right. Bringing this stuff up does seem heroic. When I should bring up Snowden, like OP did, I'm sure he's not happy he has to stay in Russia now, where the U.S.A. cannot touch him without violating the sovereign status of Russia.

In a few Dutch cases I've seen people who were once respected, who now have to live in a caravan, and who are completely dependent on what friends and family can miss when it comes to very trivial things as food, just because the accused party was not happy about the entire case, which happened to be true and even led to accepted motions of no-confidence, yet the whistle blower who brought it all to the light was thanks... well... like that... Stories like those are not really motivating to bring bad stuff to light, are they?

I don't like to speak of "heroes". And I am also not very fond of the term "traitor" either. Hushing crimes up can also be a criminal offense by itself. And if the bad stuff you did not bring up all because you were afraid of what other whistleblowers got, you can when everything is discovered also be in a bad situation.

I remember some people who talked to the Dutch news channels about huge violations in the Dutch laws about toxic emissions at a company somewhere near the Rotterdam harbor was made unrecognizable and his voice was distorted with a computer. Shows that the risk to talking to the press are high. In that sense they can be seen as "heroes".

And when it comes to traitors... Just because I am Dutch, does that mean I should hush up any bad stuff the Dutch authorities would do (if I knew about them) knowing they are bad for my countrymen and maybe also for authorities and/or civilians abroad, because I'd otherwise be a traitor? Not that I know of such things, but if I did, what should I do? That's a nasty question, isn't it?

If whistle blowers weren't good, FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) wouldn't exist.

They serve the State, not the people that run the State. So it's quite understandable.
And it's not like an allegation, it's just a harmless whistle that the accountability authorities look into. 'Tis Good, Must Happen.

I think it really depends on how confidential or serious it is tbh but mostly when things that you know nobody will really understand and could cause some panic should be more carefully dealt with but IDK IM JUST MEMEIN ON THE INTERNET

Whistleblowers are train wrecks!