Not So Anonymous Sources
Of course, sometimes it's quite simple – in fact, unavoidable -- for reporters to reveal the official without breaking the rules. Yesterday featured a particularly egregious example of this, and two blogs that pay very close attention to the goings-on in Washington politics took note of it.
"See if you can out this anonymous source, from an official White House press office transcript titled 'INTERVIEW OF A SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL, BY THE TRAVELING PRESS, Aboard Air Force Two, En Route Muscat, Oman,'" asks the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire:
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: "Let me just make one editorial comment here. I've seen some press reporting says, 'Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them.' That's not the way I work. I don't know who writes that, or maybe somebody gets it from some source who doesn't know what I'm doing, or isn't involved in it. But the idea that I'd go in and threaten someone is an invalid misreading of the way I do business."Sometimes it's difficult to figure out who the 'Senior Administration Official' is when the Bush administration says that's the only way a senior administration official can be identified in print," writes the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Window On Washington. "Sometimes it's not so difficult.""I would describe my sessions both in Pakistan and Afghanistan as very productive. We've had notable successes in both places. I've often said before and I believe it's still true that we've captured and killed more al Qaeda in Pakistan than anyplace else. And I think we're making progress in Afghanistan."