Wednesday, April 9, 2008

I Have A Question

I have begun to understand less and less the media's tendency to rely on quoting people that they will not identify.

I guess whatever they do is fine, but why do we tend to believe any of it? I mean constantly you see in the news that someone said something extremely pertinent to the story being reported, and then "...who spoke on condition of anonymity because..." whatever reason. My favorite is "they are not authorized to speak to the press".

Maybe there's a reason for that... ??

It just strikes me as funny because so often I have run into the media's tendency to shun input from local or unknown contributors because we are not experts, not "authorized to speak" on this subject. Even though we'd happily put our face and name out there, we are not afforded the same respect or opportunity that someone who is speaking without authority (or some coward hiding behind anonymity, spewing bullshit?)

Yup. It just seems funny...

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