Increasingly reporters cite anonymous sources rather than provide readers, viewers and listeners with actual names. At this conference, journalists, whose work demonstrates how information was gathered from sources who agreed to be named in the story, told how they had … Read more
As helpful or reliable as sources might seem to be, no reporter should accept their version of events without finding documentation to back up what they say. None of the investigative reporters at the conference could have published their stories … Read more
Several reporters devoted much of their presentations to describing how they went about finding sources and gathering information from them. In all cases, these reporters did not use anonymous sources and worked hard to ensure that information would be attached … Read more
What happens when reporters are shut out by sources whom they believe are necessary to report a story? Several journalists at the Watchdog conference argued that reporters often do their best work when the usual sources aren’t available. Read more
A question from the audience elicited discussion about whether there can ever be truly “independent sources.” The whole notion of independent sources, this questioner posed to the journalists, “is an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp or educational TV.” “Is there,” he … Read more
For five and a half years, Pete Souza was the official White House photographer during the Reagan Administration. His intimate access to the President provided him with an ability to produce pictures that captured authentic expressions through which real stories … Read more
No topic consumed as much of the conversation at the Watchdog conference as that of reporters’ relationships with sources. How are these relationships established? How can and should they be maintained during the course of reporting a story? Where should … Read more
The timing could not have been better. Several days after I was asked, as a Nieman Fellow, to write an article on the apparent lack of civility by British journalists, the Local Government Minister, Hilary Armstrong, reacted furiously while being … Read more
In India, workers look like ants next to the giant ships being dismantled. Photo by Perry Thorsvik, The Baltimore Sun. Years ago I confronted the president of the Baltimore City Council, … Read more
Unlike other trades, crafts, or professions, the American press is constantly in your face in one form or another: in your eyes, your ears—and an increasing number of critics these days would add: “yes, goddamit, and also in your nose—they … Read more
