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President-elect Donald Trump is clearly antagonistic toward the mainstream media. That attitude is unlikely to change after Inauguration Day. His disdain for journalists and reluctance to release details about his finances and business ventures may force journalists to rely increasingly on anonymous sources, a strategy that reputable news organizations have long frowned upon.
So in the age of Trump, how should a reader approach coverage that relies primarily on anonymous sources?
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(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @02:32PM
President-elect Donald Trump is clearly antagonistic toward the mainstream media.
Well gee, I wonder why that would be. Could it maybe have something to do with the fact that they've done nothing but badmouth him at every opportunity? Could it be that they've been overblowing every single thing he said and made unreasonable extrapolations to paint him in a bad light?
Regardless of how you feel about Trump, you cannot deny the media on the left has been outright hostile towards him since day 1. You can't poke the large orangutan with a stick for over an year and suddenly complain when it's angry at you. The media deserves everything they get from Trump and his administration, they burned this bridge and now they are going to have to deal with it.
So in the age of Trump, how should a reader approach coverage that relies primarily on anonymous sources?
Ignore them. If the article doesn't cite a primary source you can verify and is coming from the likes of the Guardian or Breitbart, you can safely presume it's bullshit until strong evidence emerges.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @03:16PM
"You can't poke the large orangutan with a stick for over an year and suddenly complain when it's angry at you."'t
In this case, shouldn't that be spelled orangetan?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @05:45PM
The tan of an orang utan is always orange, not just when angry.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @06:33PM
Badmouth? They reported on what Trump actually said. You can hardly blame the press for noticing that what he said was absolutely outrageous. Oh, and you forgot to mention that reality has a well-known liberal bias.
You may be too young to remember--if you had even been born yet--but one of the criticisms of Woodward and Bernstein was their use of anonymous sources. In fact, those anonymous sources were absolutely crucial to unmasking the Watergate scandal. While I do think it wise to have a healthy scepticism about anonymous sources, just "ignore them" seems to go a bit too far. A hell of a lot could slip past your notice with that approach.
(Score: 1) by DeVilla on Friday January 13 2017, @03:47PM
Personally, I'd be pretty happy if the press learned to investigate and question again. I just wish they'd have been doing it for the last several years.