- AP Photo/Richard Drew
In 2005 the New York Times cracked down on the use of unnamed sources. It wrote itself a new rule. As then public editor Byron Calame explained a few months later, “Readers are to be told why The Times believes a source is entitled to anonymity—a switch from the previous practice of stating why the source asked for it.”
By now the Times had a new public editor, Margaret Sullivan, who’d turned anonymous sourcing into a crusade. Sullivan had written, “Readers deplore it, public editors shake a finger at it, Times editors and reporters say they try to minimize it. The Times‘s ‘Manual of Style and Usage’ calls it ‘a last resort.’”
“The Saudis, who have long been Yemen’s economic lifeline, pumping in more than $4 billion since 2012, say they would rather allow the Houthis to take the blame for the approaching economic collapse than provide aid to an Iranian client, according to a Yemeni official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing diplomatic protocol.”
