All in Anonymous Sources

Georgia phone call: Washington Post admits their Trump quotes were wrong

Some of our readers who have followed this site from the beginning already know that we have discussed anonymous sources extensively — the right way and the wrong way to use them. When we say “right” and “wrong,” we mean “how not to look like an idiot eventually.”

In fact, The New York Times and Washington Post’s own guidelines caution against using unnamed sources more than very rarely. One of the biggest no-no’s is directly quoting the anonymous source, or further, using direct quotes allegedly by another person that were conveyed by a third party in the article because doing so could involve some embellishment or other distortion that may reflect someone’s vendetta.

Rod Rosenstein: Anonymous sources conflict with the man himself

By TATIANA PROPHET

Last Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the Washington Post published a detailed account of what led to the firing.

"Inside Trump’s anger and impatience — and his sudden decision to fire Comey," read the headline.

For four paragraphs, the authors -- Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, Sari Horwitz and Robert Costa, described an agitated and infuriated Trump, who was trying desperately to avoid the worst subject to him: Russia.

In the fourth paragraph, an anonymous source was mentioned. Trump was ready to fire the "sanctimonious" Comey. (Isn't that too big a word for Trump to use?)

"Trump summoned the two of them [Attorney General Jeff Sessions and newly appointed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein] to the White House for a meeting, according to a person close to the White House," stated the article.

The president gave the two Justice Department officials a directive, said the article: to explain in writing the case against Comey.

"The pair quickly fulfilled the boss’s orders, and the next day Trump fired Comey — a breathtaking move that thrust a White House already accustomed to chaos into a new level of tumult, one that has legal as well as political consequences," the four repoters wrote.