Anonymity and confidentiality
By Marsha Green
Here at Basketball Unfiltered, we believe in respecting the wishes of our sources. Sources are the bridge between news and the public, but at times our sources would like to remain anonymous; for their safety, and their sanity. Having sources remain anonymous can cause serious damage, the damage that we strive to avoid. At the New York Times, there were two major front page errors that occurred due to anonymous sources giving false information that was not thoroughly vetted.
Since then, NYT has cracked down heavily on the use of anonymous sources. “The use of anonymous sources presents the greatest risk in our most consequential, exclusive stories. But the appearance of anonymous sources in routine government and political stories, as well as many other enterprise and feature stories, also tests our credibility with readers.”
Here at Basketball Unfiltered, all information given to us will be screened and vetted through our staff. The information must be confirmed before we deliver it to the public. Sources have the right to remain anonymous, but if higher authority steps in, i.e. police, or other government officials, they will have the right to investigate the story and the source as they choose.
When it comes to the use of confidentiality we try to avoid it. While we respect the request, we like the “Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press” look for ways to limit confidentiality.
“The use of confidential sources should be avoided whenever possible. Putting aside the legal implications, attributing information to unnamed people hinders your readers’ ability to assess the credibility of your sources and by extension you.” We do not look to lose credibility or trust in our readers, and if the overuse of confidentiality can create that, it is something we choose to steer away from.
