Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/20
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on 19/1/00 11:05 pm, Marc James Small at msmall@roanoke.infi.net wrote:
> A completely inapt comparison. Innuendo, insult, slander, and slur are the
> norm of politics, and Woodward and Bernstein were political writers. You
> are not so. To the contrary, you are a journalist in a highly technical
> craft. As such, your sources become vital to your credibility.
I have sat out this exchange, but screw it. This is so much balls. I speak
as a long term investigative journalist. Check out my credits on the IMDB if
you doubt it. Anonymous sources are a necessary part of *all* journalism
where people depend for their livelihoods on organisations they wish to
criticise. The idea that all sources should be public plays into the hands
of those who have the power to threaten, whether explicitly or by
implication.
Just because we are talking corporations rather than politics changes this
not a whit. Anyone who has ever come up against a corporation in this
context knows how intense the pressure they can apply is. The fact that it's
economic pressure rather than physical or politcal is irrelevant, and in
fact for people whose livelihood is at stake economic pressure, *even if it
is merely perceived rather than threatened*, is a very powerful force.
Just because sources are anonymous does not mean they should be discounted.
However, you need to take into account the credibility and integrity of the
people who report what they say. Thus, an anonymous source quoted by a
supermarket tabloid has a different impact than one quoted by the Washington
Post. Journalists who wish to preserve their reputations are *extremely*
careful about anonymous sources, precisely because if the information they
provide proves to be duff, the journalist's reputation suffers.
In my opinion criticising a reputable journalist of proven reliability for
quoting anonymous sources is, frankly, naive and obfuscatory.
Over and out.
- --
John Brownlow
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