Comment by CodingJeebus
2 days ago
> all newspapers should cite sources.
You'd lose a lot of valid sourcing if you made this a requirement. For example, the Catholic Church scandal investigation would never have seen the light of day if the key legal sources corroborating the story had to give up their identity as part of the process. Speaking off the record is often where a lot of those kinds of stories come together.
And the reaction around the world to that story, the thousands of victims that came forward, resoundingly confirmed what people were saying on background.
You can say "an anonymous source". That's a standard journalistic practice.
What shouldn't be standard is "we read this newspaper article and we're going to repeat it as if we originated the story". Which is what AI news always is, in addition to the vast majority of news outlets.
The origin of most news is wire services, repeating what local reporters write. Newspapers usually at least cite the wire service. Blogs, TV shows, and others speak as if they were the originators.
Oh I see what you're saying now, totally agree with that.