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Media Report

Anonymous sources

Arthur Weinreb

June 2, 2003

In what has been described as the worst crisis in the history of the New York Times, reporter Jayson Blair was forced to resign when it surfaced that many of his articles were either plagiarized and/or fictitious. One egregious example was his article on Private Jessica Lynch. Datelined, Palestine, West Virginia, Lynch’s home town, Blair wrote about the soldier, including the view from her family’s front porch, while never leaving New York City. The Blair incident brought the media’s use of anonymous sources to the forefront of the debate on journalistic issues.

The use of an anonymous source can enable a journalist, who is so inclined, to easily fabricate facts by making up the either the source of the information from the source. A lesser problem is that anonymity makes it easier for the reporter to exaggerate the information gleaned from the source. The converse is also true--that the source can fabricate or embellish the information, knowing that it will never be attributed to them.

A panel discussion held in 1999, at the Columbia School of Journalism, concluded that anonymous sources are troubling but necessary to journalism. Views varied on whether or not more than one anonymous source should be found before the story is published, with Michael Isikoff, from Newsweek, saying that "Two sources sounds good in theory, but in practice it’s another matter. One good source--the right source--is better than 10 bum sources." The audience was told that they have to distinguish between people who are sought out because they have expertise in certain areas, and those who approach reporters, many of them being cranks and crackpots.

It appears that despite the anxieties raised in newsrooms by the Jayson Blair fiasco, anonymous sources are here to stay. But readers and viewers should be wary of the circumstances of how those sources are used.


Liberal bias at the BBC

Teresa May, Chairman of the British Conservative Party, has accused the BBC of bias in their coverage of the UK’s May 1 local elections. The Tories made substantial gains, leaving the Labour Party with the lowest number of seats in the last 30 years. The Conservative Party accused the network of working from a pre-arranged script that highlighted the "Conservatives in crisis." According to May’s allegations, the BBC concentrated on the resignation of the shadow trade, and industry member, from the Tory front bench, and ignored the huge local gains that the Conservative Party were making.

Media bias, where it exists, is easily discernable during live coverage of election results, because they can’t be scripted. Many on-air personalities just can’t hide their feelings, especially when the results turn out differently than expected. A good example of this was some local Toronto coverage of the first megacity election results in 1997. Citytv’s leftist, and pro-Barbara Hall, news team were ecstatic when early returns from the old city of Toronto gave Hall a commanding lead. Later on, as returns from the suburbs came in, which led to former North York mayor Mel Lastman winning the mayoralty race, they couldn’t hide their disappointment and frustration.

Some things are universal.


And now--the rest of the story

Toronto lawyer, Rocco Galati, held a press conference concerning one of his clients--Mahmoud Jaballah, who has been held in jail for 32 months. Jaballah has not been charged or convicted of any offence, but is being held as the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Solicitor General of Canada signed a security threat after a certificate. At the press conference, Galati said that "Arabs and Muslims don’t have any constitutional rights," and likened his detention to the detention of Japanese Canadians and Italian Canadians during the Second World War.

All four Toronto based newspapers reported the story. All but the Toronto Sun quoted Galati’s statement about Muslims and Arabs not having any constitutional rights. But the National Post was the only newspaper that didn’t just leave it at that. After the quote, the Post added, "but the judge’s ruling dealt not with Mr. Jaballah’s religious affiliation, but rather his involvement with Al Jihad."

Both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail let Galati’s allegation that Canada is detaining Muslims and Arabs, because they are Muslims and Arabs, stand as if it was a fact, ignoring what the court case was about..