Granting anonymity: rules vs. reality
Ask students to read one or more of the guidelines for anonymous sourcing below. Then have them read a selection of the news articles below that rely on anonymous sources.
Guidelines for anonymous sourcing:
Articles with unnamed sources:
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CNN: "‘The uptick in violence, I haven't seen anything this bad in a long time,’ said a law enforcement official. ‘This is the worst I've seen it in six or seven years.’ The uptick in murders is tied to gang and drug activity, with drug dealers fighting over territory, another law enforcement official said.”
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New York Times: “Even before the pandemic, people seemed more prickly, with minor disputes escalating into violent confrontations that ended in death, law enforcement and other analysts noted. That tendency only deepened during the pandemic, they said, with perceived personal insults among the most common motivations for homicide.”
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Los Angeles Times: Officers responded about 11:45 a.m. to reports of an assault with a deadly weapon at the store near Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards, according to the Police Department. At the store, authorities encountered a man they said was assaulting someone, and they opened fire, according to preliminary findings by the Police Department.”
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South Bend Tribune: “Some national experts have speculated the recent increase in violence across the country can be traced, in part, to the decrease in public confidence in police departments as victims of gun violence became more likely to retaliate, continuing a cycle of violence.”
After reading these materials facilitate a discussion using the following questions:
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Do these uses of unnamed sources meet the standards for anonymity laid out by the AP, NYT, or ProPublica? Why or why not?
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What problems could result from granting these sources anonymity?