Super Double Secret Sources

"Well-placed sources," "people close" to the situation, "two sources close" to decision-makers, "sources say," "insiders," and "a person close." Those are the kinds of sourcing phrases you'd expect to see in a big story about, oh, say the rationale for invading Iraq. Today, they're characterizations reserved for stories about Katie Couric's seemingly imminent decision to leave NBC News and become the new anchor for CBS News. If this were about weapons of mass destruction, would we believe they exist?

Of course this isn't about war or government policy as much as it is about speculation and gossip. Don't get me wrong, the stakes are very high for the network news divisions anytime a star of this magnitude is making a decision about a move like this. It would be a mistake to ignore that. But it's amusing to see people whose jobs are ostensibly dedicated partly to digging information out of institutions play the "anonymous source" card to such a remarkable degree on a story like this.

No person at either network is quoted by name confirming that this move is pretty much done, but the papers today are chock full of headlines indicating it is – complete with some details about Couric's role at CBS. In a front-page story in The Washington Post, Howard Kurtz at least provides a rationale for quoting only sources, writing, "they spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract talks have not been completed." Fair enough.

News organizations have sought in recent years to reduce their sometimes silly reliance on unnamed sources. It has to make one chuckle to see so many used in reporting on their own profession.

Update: We've posted more on the relationship between Public Eye and CBS News.