EOTO Response: Anonymous Sources

 In the world of Journalism the main way that we get information for our work is though using different types of sources. It is best to use a direct source, which is someone who is credible with a story that can be proven and has no reason to lie. This can at times be tricky however, that is where our skills as journalists come alive. 

Today a group presented an EOTO on the history of Journalist using anonymous sources. They went over the times journalists have used it and it has gone well. For example, with the infamous Nixon Watergate scandal we learned about how the the journalist who covered that story made good use of his anonymous source. A source who at the time was only known as ‘Deep Throat’, it later came out that it was a former FBI agent who was thought to be but was never confirmed to be the anonymous source. They met in secured and they were able to communicate that way and it resulted in a helpful story that exposed Nixion’s crimes. 

                                                                Photo: Peter Osnos

However on the other end of this the group also went over a Journalist who didn’t make good use of her anonymous sources, who in fact were never real in the first place. Janet Cooke was an American journalist who published a story in the Washington Post Titled “Jimmy’s World”, it was advertised as an account of a young Black boy who was struggling with his heroin addiction. This story caused outrage because people were looking for the boy who was being so neglected by his parents that he would have the opportunity to become a heroin addict at the age of eight. 

The story was so sensational that Cooke even went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for it. However, it was later discovered that the story was completely fabricated. Janet Cooke would go in to loose her job and her credibility however, it started a larger conversation about the way journalists work and the ways and times that they are allowed to use anonymous sources. Before class today I had never heard of this case or known about this anonymous source standard that Journalist have now. Overall, I found it to be informative as well as widely fascinating.