Anonymous sources have become "the crack cocaine of journalism," according to Wendell Cochran, associate professor in the School of Communication, who was part of a panel at the "The Investigative Reporting Forum" sponsored by professor Gemma Puglisi's PR Portfolio class. Panelists concluded that anonymous sources are overused in today's media.
Cochran's fellow panelists were George Washington University professor Mark Feldstein, Newman Fellowship winner and documentary producer Katie King and Pulitzer Prize-winner and Washington Post investigative reporter James Grimalid. The PR portfolio class worked with Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., a grassroots nonprofit organization that tries to improve the quality of journalism, according to its Web site.
Coming of age during the Watergate era and inspired by the work of Woodward and Bernstein to become journalists, the panelists said they were concerned about recent developments in investigative reporting. News stories concerning Judith Miller and the Scooter Libby trial led panelists to conclude anonymous sources were overused.
"Yeah, every day I've got sources I have to protect," Grimaldi said. "It's the lifeblood of what we do."
While Grimaldi admitted anonymous sources were important to stories, he said there were many ways a journalist could avoid putting his source in trouble.
A tip can begin anonymously, but then it is up to the journalist to find the documentations and on-the-record interviews to support the tip. Once these quotable sources have been established, the anonymous tip that first gave the information is shielded by the other sources, Grimaldi said.
King, a Reuters reporter, said her company did not allow anonymous sources to be quoted for information in their stories, which helped them better scrutinize tips for quality of information.
The legal implications of anonymous reporting were intermingled with discussion about how journalists should treat sources who do not want to be identified. Lobbying on Capitol Hill has looked to provide shield laws for journalists and their sources. Currently, 49 of the states have laws in place, but there is no uniform standard in the federal government.
"The problem is the law," Feldstein said. "Morally we can make the decisions [about sources] in the newsroom, but the law doesn't separate good sources and bad ones. When we go after the bad, we opened the door to get the good, which worries me."
Panelists also discussed how the Internet and technology are moving to increase sources, information and its presentation.
"I think [the event] went great," Sana Azem, a senior in SOC and a member of the PR Portfolio class, said. "We had great panelists and a great turnout. We knew that we were working with IRE and this was something to bring more awareness to AU"
