Two of Newsweek's Top Editors to Approve Anonymous Sources

Conservative Thoughts ^ | May 23, 2005 | John Kuethe

[Wrangler22]

In Monday’s edition, Newsweek Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Richard Smith wrote a letter in which he apologized for the report and said the magazine will raise standards for anonymous sourcing. "We got an important story wrong, and honor requires us to admit our mistake and redouble our efforts to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again," he wrote.

Two of the magazine's top editors will be assigned sole responsibility for approving the use of anonymous sources, and the magazine will stop using the phrase "sources said" to attribute information in stories, Smith said.

My question is "What has changed?" Two of the magazines top editors will be approving anonymous sources? "They approved it" will make it more credible, ahh OK. The magazine's credibility has taken a hit as riots across the Middle East led to multiple deaths and injuries. We can't be sure that the top two editors charged with approving the use of anonymous sources had no knowledge of the bogus Quran Flushing story. Perhaps they can hire Dan Rather as editor in charge of fact checking.

[randog]

Two of the magazine's top editors will be assigned sole responsibility for approving the use of anonymous sources, and the magazine will stop using the phrase "sources said" to attribute information in stories, Smith said.

Uhhhhh...so what will they use in place of "sources said"--"we believe", "it is said", "someone said"? A rose by any other name...

[roses of sharon]

Why, why, do Conservative/Republican news and blogs continue to treat the NY leftists-media as professionals??

They are DNC political organizations, and should be treated as such, not shamed/cajoled or treated as they "just made a mistake, and are trying to fix it".

We must admit that these people are DNC operatives running a 24/7 political campaign.

This campaign is against our kids over there, and we need to fight back.