NEWS 409 Lecture 30: Anonymous Sources Notes
26 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
Few ethical issues in journalism are more entangled with the law than the use of anonymous sources. Keep your promise not to identify a source of information and it"s possible to find yourself facing a grand jury, a judge and a jail cell. On the other hand, break your promise of confidentiality to that source and it"s just possible you might find yourself on the receiving end of a lawsuit. None is more famous and perhaps none was more important than watergate"s deep throat, the fbi source who helped the washington post unravel the white house cover-up of the. And perhaps none was more infamous than those janet cooke invented to concoct her fictitious pulitzer prize-winning story about a child heroin addict. Anonymous sources are sometimes the only key to unlocking that big story, throwing back the curtain on corruption, fulfilling the journalistic missions of watchdog on the government and informant to the citizens.
