Some guy speaks
After years of reading an ever growing number of articles in newspapers with comments attributed to unnamed sources, I feel that it is high time for a dose of honesty forced upon the press. There should henceforth be no more quotes from "individuals who choose not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject" or "parties close to the issue who wish to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak puplicly". Such quotes should be described honestly by the press as being stated by "some guy", after all the press feels no duty their readers to prove that their source has any more credibility than that.
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We as readers should demand that at least once in a while the press actually speak to people that are either authorized to speak on a subject or willing to deal with the potential consequenses of being completely wrong. As it is we are presented with opinions and "facts" presented time and again by unnamed people without any way of knowing if they have any knowedge of the subject, what their biases may be or if they even exist outside a reporter's imagination (hello New York Times). Yet because they are presented with multisylabic espressions of and nonsensical explainations for nondisclosure of identity (BS reasons for not being named) we give these mystery men and the reporters who quote them our trust.
If such articles (which if you haven't noticed are nearly all the articles in this and most papers) were honest they would read something like this "Some guy said that the attack in Iraq was succesful" or maybe "Some guy said the police had a suspect in custody." How about "Some guy said the Fed will cut interest rates again." Would we as readers trust articles quoting "some guy"? I don't think so, but then I guess that's the point. I could be wrong though, I am after all just "some guy".
Frank Mazzur
Dallastown
Some guys say "use spell-check or a dictionary" and let the working press decide when to quote unnamed sources in otherwise adequately sourced stories.
Jeff wouldn't be one of the working press who decide what the public deserves to know.
His weak ad hominem attack showed his own arrogance and stupidity. To correct-Some guys say "Use spell check or a dictionary." apparently his spell check can't fix his punctuation for him.