Anonymous sourcing an important tool for journalists, yesterday and today

Sourcing is the most important aspect of a reporter's job.

If the source of the information — it can be a person, document or other form of communication — is not right, the reporting is going to be inaccurate. Sourcing has become a national topic as media outlets such as the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN and Fox News use anonymous sourcing on stories relating to President Donald Trump, the Russia allegations and national security.

Sourcing on a national level and a local level are similar. In both cases, you turn to people who have information. Longtime Ledger-Enquirer reporter and editor Jim Houston, who has been retired for almost 10 years now, was a master at sourcing in its various roles. Many times, I watched Jim source stories and tried to go to school on his tactics.

“You look for people with a track record,” Houston said of his method to sourcing. “If somebody tells me something, I don’t just go put it in the paper right away. I look for a way to confirm it, maybe a document or another person with similar knowledge.”

In my mind, that is the biggest misconception about what reporters — at news outlets big and small — do. When we use anonymous sourcing, great pains have been taken to corroborate that information.

That was how it was when the Ledger-Enquirer had one print edition a day; and it is how it is today when we push out information and stories at what can be a rapid pace.

The Ledger-Enquirer has a policy that the use of an anonymous source must be approved by the editor.

“We use anonymous sources only when it’s the only way we can break a story,” said Dimon Kendrick-Holmes, vice president and executive editor of the Ledger-Enquirer, “and even then it must be an important story that serves the best interest of our readers.”

One of the ways to look at sourcing is to look at many of the official means by which news organizations gather information.

In Columbus, many of the public and private entities pay communications specialists to provide information to the Ledger-Enquirer on a regular basis though news releases and story tips. You have people like Lee Underwood at Synovus, Cyle Mims at TSYS, Greg Hudgison at Columbus State University, Cheryl Myers at Columbus Technical College, Jon Sullivan at Aflac and Valerie Fuller at the Muscogee County School District who supply various information to Ledger-Enquirer reporters for consideration for publication.

Most of that information is pretty solid, straight-forward and usually not too controversial. In short, it is information that they want us to publish.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

Where anonymous sourcing comes into play usually is when it’s information without public relations value. Most of those anonymous sources don’t just walk up off the street, Houston said.

“They usually have an interest in what’s going on and feel something is wrong,” Houston said. “If they provide the information on the record, they feel that they, or their family, can be harmed. On the government side, it is usually somebody who has something they feel that the public needs to know.”

Sometimes a source has an ax to grind, but that comes with the territory, Houston said.

“What does that matter if they have an ax to grind?” he asked. “Everybody has a reason for what they do. If they have an ax to grind, you have to ask if the information is true. Truth is what matters.”

Amen.

For nearly four decades, Houston did this job right and helped train many of us who do it here today. He received the Georgia First Amendment Foundation’s highest honor for the body of his journalistic work.

It is important today that reporters pay attention to their sources and get it right, Houston said.

“If you don’t have anonymous sourcing, then you have totalitarian control of everything,” he said.

So, before you start condemning those reporters and news organizations who are using it, take a step back and consider the alternative.

This story was originally published June 3, 2017 at 12:33 AM with the headline "Anonymous sourcing an important tool for journalists, yesterday and today."