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Anonymous sources are used by all media outlets, no matter how far left or right.
Yes, we saw the endless lies for three years during the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
and if you believe the words from anonymous sources, and support criminal actions against a person, or use it for an impeachment of a president, based only upon the words of some anonymous person, you are a fool.
To clarify, in terms of professional journalism, an anonymous source is not an unknown source. It is not hearsay or rumor. It is not conspiracy theory.
It is merely a protected source.
There is a strict set of protocols that must be adhered to in order to use so-called "anonymous sources" in a news report.
An anonymous source may be used only if:
the source is reliable
the source is in a position to have accurate information
Information received from an anonymous source may be used only if:
it is not opinion
it is not speculation
it is vital to the news report
it is not available except under the condition of anonymity
This is Journalism 101.
We would never get the real story if not for anonymous sources.
I do not doubt that sources can and sometimes warrant a protected anonymous status.
That is a very important tenant of free press.
But I do ask how does the average joe schmoe know the difference between that and something just made up?
They can't.
So it falls on the publication, itself to be worthy of our trust. And nowadays, with outwardly displaying bias one way or the other as practically a Marketing tool, I can understand the skepticism.
The source's livelihood might be at stake? This isn't a big stretch. Observe.
Anonymous source comes out as John Smith, senior advisor to some cabinet official. Smith has since resigned his post and gone to work at a defense contracting firm that has tens of millions of dollars in defense contracts. Smith is "outed" as the anonymous source. Trump pressures that firm to fire Smith. If they don't, Trump applies pressure to cancel or not renew all of those contracts.
It really isn't all that hard.
Anonymous sources are the only reason we ever found out about Watergate. They were invaluable then. The problem now is that Trump just says "fake news!" and 40% of the country believe whatever he says.
No, the problem is that the Democrats and their MSM cronies have dedicated the last three and a half years to one falsified witch hunt after another and destroyed their own credibility. Apparently "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" was not required reading for the left as they were growing up, and it shows.
This is why it is so important to obtain information from a multitude of sources, and to check the sources of the sources.
Problem is, people are comfortable in their echo chambers. The battle lines are drawn and confirmation bias is king.
If you believe that Atlantic story you are the ultimate hidden in an echo chamber and example of confirmation bias. At least 10 people, some of whom despise the president, have said its not true. The Atlantic has promised to bring more info against Trump in the last 60 days before the election and has had a pattern of printing garbage against this president. This happened years ago and is showing up now? Trump's visit with the spouse of a dead servicewoman in Syria shows how he really feels.
It takes a special type of stupid to think there is a real story behind these "anonymous sources." Confirmation bias in the extreme.
This is why it is so important to obtain information from a multitude of sources, and to check the sources of the sources.
Problem is, people are comfortable in their echo chambers. The battle lines are drawn and confirmation bias is king.
Sadly, today's lynch mob journalists, think that the hearsay of rumors and gossip can become factual if enough unnamed sources are attributed to it, and used to destroy their enemies.
The news media will destroy a person's professional and private life, just be stitching together enough unnamed sources. One person can start a rumor, then others will repeat the same rumors and gossip. If the biased, agenda driven press can cite enough of these unnamed sources, all repeating versions of the false rumor, then idiot sheeple will call to destroy the target of the rumor.
The Democrats are the lynch mob, it's why they push these unnamed sources.
So this lying liar Democrat left activist at the Atlantic says he has "anonymous sources" to back up his story.
Meanwhile, there are - so far - 21 public "on the record" identified sources who were in attendance who have flatly refuted and denied this ever happened.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany made an appearance on Fox News in the morning on Tuesday and said she knows of 19 on-the-record sources who have denied the story by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.
"More than a dozen of which have first-hand accounts have dismissed this. Said it is fundamentally untrue," she added.
Two more on-the-record denials have since been shared on Twitter, including by Nick Ayers, who served as chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence from 2017 to 2019. Moments later, Brian Morgenstern, the deputy communications director and deputy press secretary at the White House, shared what he said was the 21st denial from retired Maj. Gen. William Matz, who said he was the host of the event "discussed by the false and despicable" article in the Atlantic.
"Make it 21 statements refuting The Atlantic’s false reporting & demonstrating @realDonaldTrump’s respect for our nation’s heroes," Morgenstern wrote in a tweet.
It would be virtually impossible to count all of the lies and baseless smears that these Democrat leftist pathological liars have told about President Trump.
The Democrat left media is entirely untrustworthy when it comes to any statement that is politically oriented either in support of their favored candidates or "narratives," or against their political adversaries. As has been demonstrated here in this instance, yet again.
Anyone with an ounce of sense will presume from the start that these people are lying when they speak or report on any such matters.
Bad apples are not the exception, good apples are because they get infected or worse by the bad apples.
It's not really Journalism that is to blame, it's the culture of destruction that is rooted in the hatred of success that takes seed from those incapable of success. The net result is a culture where failure is virtuous and success is evil.
Goes hand in hand with lower educational standards.
At this point "journalism" is so bad that the definitions of "fact" or "truth" are under attack.
If you believe that Atlantic story you are the ultimate hidden in an echo chamber and example of confirmation bias. At least 10 people, some of whom despise the president, have said its not true. The Atlantic has promised to bring more info against Trump in the last 60 days before the election and has had a pattern of printing garbage against this president. This happened years ago and is showing up now? Trump's visit with the spouse of a dead servicewoman in Syria shows how he really feels.
It takes a special type of stupid to think there is a real story behind these "anonymous sources." Confirmation bias in the extreme.
I have not read the Atlantic story regarding Trump's alleged disparaging remarks, so I cannot comment on it.
I have seen the video in which Trump states that McCain was not a war hero because he was captured, so I believe it is possible that he has made other disparaging remarks. But I digress.
This thread is about the extremely common practice of using anonymous sources by journalists--representing both left and right news agencies.
This is all very nice but the problem is, modern "journalists" cannot be trusted to use anonymous sources responsibly or truthfully. Agenda based narrative journalism makes anonymous sources too unreliable to be considered credible.
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