More on anonymous sources (pun intended)

Apparently, despite several stories based on unnamed sources, the president and Capitol Hill Democrats are on the same page on the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap. This might be a surprise given that recent coverage said Democrats viewed the “Bergdahl swap (as the) latest last straw for top Democrats frustrated with president’s leadership.”

Let’s go back a bit, to my post from last week (triggered by Daniel Froomkin’s Facebook post). It was about a New York Times’ inside-baseball piece (i.e., a story about Washington for Washington) that purported to show that President Obama had list key Democrats in the House and Senate. My problem with the story was that it relied on unnamed elected officials and the Times’ cachet inside the Beltway to make its point.

The National Journal followed suit yesterday, offering a similar piece about the fraying relationship between Obama had Democrats on Capitol Hill, a piece that also relied exclusively on unnamed sources. (I tweeted out a question about that one from my KaletJournalism account I encourage my students to follow:

Imagine my surprise today, however, when I came across this headline on Politico, “Senate Dems back Obama on Bergdahl,” which would seem to contradict the earlier reporting. It is based on comments made by leading Democrats after today’s intelligence briefing — so there is a timing issue that factors into the coverage — and it is fully sourced. This does not negate the earlier coverage, but it does cast its failings in much brighter light and makes me, at least, further question the motives of the unnamed elected officials on which the Times and National Journal stories relied. And, to be fair, Greg Sargent is reporting that there is Democratic criticism of the PR side of the Bergdahl affair, with Conn. Sen. Richard Blumenthal going on record as saying it could have been handled better.

I stick to my original contention — that anonymous sources must be used sparingly, if at all, and only in those cases when the importance of and need for the information gained is so great that it overrides the potential pitfalls created by relying on unnamed sources.

Send me an e-mail.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
Unknown's avatar

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Leave a comment