At the same time, journalists owe it to themselves to maintain distance between themselves and off the record sources. People speaking anonymously have by definition their own agenda; it compromises the journalist's ethics to forget that and treat the anonymous source with the same credibility as the source willing to go on the record.
Anytime I see "anonymous sources" in an article I immediately assume its fake news and propaganda and discount anything it has to say unless I can find an alternate verifiable source.
Yes!!
No. Anonymous sources should remain anonymous.
At the same time, journalists owe it to themselves to maintain distance between themselves and off the record sources. People speaking anonymously have by definition their own agenda; it compromises the journalist's ethics to forget that and treat the anonymous source with the same credibility as the source willing to go on the record.
Anytime I see "anonymous sources" in an article I immediately assume its fake news and propaganda and discount anything it has to say unless I can find an alternate verifiable source.