Out of the shadow of 'sources said'

I can think of no common journalistic shortcoming more threatening to media credibility than overreliance on unnamed sources. Polls consistently show that people object to - and are skeptical of - "sources said" stories. Almost invariably, they say, they assume that any quote without a name attached to it was made up by the reporter.

That was indeed the case in several stories written by Jayson Blair, who resigned from The New York Times in May amid disclosures that he was a serial liar and plagiarist. The Blair affair has triggered anew concerns about the use of unnamed sources - and the failure of editors to monitor their use.

But this abusive practice long predates Mr. Blair, and while I don't think most - or many - anonymous quotes are fabricated, I've never understood why editors at even the best newspapers tolerate anonymity so routinely. Of course, some important stories would never be published if the reporter couldn't promise anonymity to a source. Certainly, that was true of Watergate and Vietnam. But not every story is Vietnam or Watergate.

Unfortunately - every day on purely routine stories - too many reporters are too lazy to press their sources to go on the record. Or they get caught up in the game of inside baseball and think they're impressing their editors and readers with their ability to ferret out deep secrets from sources so sensitive that they can't disclose their names.

Many editors like to say they have policies requiring reporters to tell them the identity of any unnamed sources before they'll publish stories based on their statements. But as a practical matter, that doesn't happen very often. "I have asked reporters who their sources are on really dicey stories," says Dean Baquet, managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, "but there are so many stories that use unnamed sources that you can't possibly ask for them all."

That's precisely the problem.

A few papers - very few, mostly smaller papers - prohibit or severely limit the use of unnamed sources.

"As a rule, we don't use [anonymous sources] in our local coverage," Jeannine Guttman, editor of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, wrote in a May 18 editor's note, following exposure of the Blair case. "In principle, we firmly believe that the overuse of anonymous news sources causes readers to question the accuracy and authenticity of a news report."

Ms. Guttman didn't say the paper never uses unnamed sources, but that it does so rarely, and only "when it has been determined that there is no other way to report the story, and when the story is of such weight that we are willing to take this extraordinary step."

The policy here at the Times, Mr. Baquet says, is to "try to avoid using unnamed sources. But to report in the real world, you have to use them sometimes."

The media use too many of them, though, and while editors set policy and decide what's published (or not), it's the reporter who conducts the interviews and makes the preliminary decision, in the field, about granting anonymity (or not).

Too many reporters grant anonymity too easily and too often. I know that not only from reading their stories but also as someone who's written about the news media for almost 28 years.

I'm stunned by the number of reporters over the years who've called me and, before we could do more than exchange hellos, have offered me anonymity in exchange for answering their questions. I don't ask for anonymity; they automatically, preemptively offer it - and my experience is all too common.

My answer always is: "I try not to use anonymous sources, so I'm not interested in being one. But I'll be happy to answer your questions on the record."

Page: 1 | 2