Michael Kinsley on Snakes

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/11/michael-kinsley-on-snakes

"Speaking Candidly, Journalists Are Truly Snakes" is the headline on this Michael Kinsley column published by Bloomberg News: "one anonymous source can be turned into half a dozen different people. She can be a 'White House official,' and 'one person who attended the meeting,' and 'a source high in the administration' and 'a person familiar with the administration's thinking' -- all in the same article."

In 20 years as a journalist at a lot of different publications, I've never engaged in that deception of readers as a reporter, approved it as an editor, or even heard of it being practiced by a colleague. If Mr. Kinsley has, it's almost enough to make a reader wonder if the "snakes" in the headline include Mr. Kinsley himself. Credit him for letting readers in on the secret now, I suppose, but some specific examples of this sort of thing would be something.

by Editor  |  Nov 5, 2011 at 7:51 am Related Topics:  Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list