* Nils Ketelsen: > Ein, wie ich finde, sch�n zu lesender Artikel, �ber Anonyme Quellen und dem > Widerspruch in den sich Sicherheitsbeh�rden begeben, wenn sie sagen, dass > anonyme Quellen unbrauchbar sind, Anonymit�t nur f�r kriminelle interessant > ist etc. > > http://www.anonequity.org/weblog/archives/000193.php
FAIR schrieb j�ngst auch etwas zu dem Thema aus einem anderen Blickwinkel: | MEDIA ADVISORY: | Lessons from Newsweek's Retraction | | June 1, 2005 | | [...] | | While the practice of having officials vet stories in advance has | received little attention, conventional wisdom holds that the real | ethical lesson of the Newsweek incident is to avoid anonymous | sources. In a letter to readers in the magazine's May 30 issue, | Newsweek's Smith vowed, "We will raise the standards for the use of | anonymous sources throughout the magazine. Historically, unnamed | sources have helped to break or advance stories of great national | importance, but overuse can lead to distrust among readers and | carelessness among journalists." | | While there's no denying that unnamed sources are overused, the kind | of anonymity granted in the May 9 "Periscope" item--protecting a | source who is breaking government secrecy to expose official | wrongdoing--is actually the most justifiable, and such uses make up a | small minority of the anonymous sources who appear in the news media | every day. Overwhelmingly, the officials who are quoted without being | identified are not whistleblowers, but rather government officials | looking to spin the news in favor of themselves and their bosses. | | Sure enough, a few pages from that editor's note, Newsweek ran a piece | on a meeting between George W. Bush and Egyptian prime minister Ahmed | Nazif. The meeting occurred behind closed doors, so Newsweek's only | source for what happened there was an anonymous White House | official--remaining unnamed, the magazine said, "because the meeting | was private"--who, unsurprisingly, took the opportunity to boast about | Bush's performance. In the source's version, Bush "counseled | patience," "emphasized his commitment to nation-building" and showed a | "more nurturing approach" during the meeting. "It's not a simplistic | foreign policy," Newsweek quoted the source. "It's not just a | shoot-from-the-hip, idealistic thing." This more common use of | anonymous sources--to give administration officials a chance to | flatter themselves--raised few if any eyebrows among the critics who | supposedly objected to Newsweek's reliance on the unnamed. | | When asked to explain the discrepancy between the White House's | criticism of Newsweek's anonymous sourcing of its Quran item and the | fact that the White House itself regularly gives anonymous briefings | to reporters, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said | (5/17/05) it was acceptable to quote anonymous "officials who are | helping to provide context to on-the-record comments made by people | like the President or the Secretary of State or others"; the real | problem was that "some media organizations have used anonymous sources | that are hiding behind that anonymity in order to generate negative | attacks." | | It's easy to see why the White House press secretary would approve of | anonymous sources when they help the administration and condemn them | when they don't. What's more puzzling is that some in the media seem | to be judging anonymous sources the same way. <http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2529> Der Begriff "anonym" ist einfach mit zu vielen Bedeutungen �berladen. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
