We learned last week that Jimbo Fisher will succeed Bobby Bowden, the venerable head coach of The Florida State University Seminoles football team.
At least that’s what the main headline on an article in Thursday’s Sports section told us.
The subordinate headline explained that FSU “is expected to announce” that Fisher, the new coordinator of the ‘Noles offense, will take over when Bowden retires. Hmmm. That seems a little less definitive.
In an even more cautious tone, the article, itself, stated, “It seems we now know” the answer to the oft-asked question about the next person to wear Bowden’s cleats.
Considering what appeared to be the quickly declining certainty of that information, you may wonder who provided it.
Well, it was “sources.”
I’ll have to confess a personal aversion to that term. Presumably all information comes from “sources” of one kind or another. So telling you that, and no more, essentially tells you nothing — other than that the Sentinel isn’t going to let you know who they are.
That’s where news organizations get into awkward situations.
As this newspaper’s ethics code points out, “When we withhold a source’s identity, responsibility for the reliability of that information falls to the Sentinel rather than to the person providing it.”
ESPN college-football analyst Kirk Herbstreit learned that lesson the hard way a week ago Saturday. He began the day by announcing that, “barring something extraordinary,” Louisiana State University head football coach Les Miles would become the University of Michigan’s next coach.
Then something extraordinary happened: An obviously irritated Miles, about to coach LSU in the Southeastern Conference championship game, held an impromptu press conference to insist, “I’m the head coach at LSU. I will be the head coach at LSU. I have no interest in talking to anyone else.’
Herbstreit explained the egg on his face to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by saying, “The guy I talked to has always been extremely accurate.”
Uh-huh. Of course, all eyes will be on Miles Jan. 8, after his team plays The Ohio State University Buckeyes for the national championship.
Likewise, many eyes will be on FSU Monday to see if the Sentinel’s “sources,” too, were “extremely accurate.”
That’s not the way it should work, though. Readers shouldn’t have to wait and wonder if news reports are true.
Sometimes, of course, information that people regard as important can’t be confirmed on the record. In those cases, journalists have to decide 1. whether to hold that information until someone will stand behind it or 2. to attribute it to people who can’t be identified publicly.
When Option 2 is chosen, the following rules should apply:
* Its importance to readers must outweigh any potential damage to the newspaper’s credibility.
* The anonymous information must be necessary to the article.
* All efforts to confirm the information on the record must have been exhausted.
* The people providing the information must have a legitimate reason for remaining anonymous — and that reason should be explained to readers.
* The newspaper should guard against being used by people with ulterior motives.
Additionally, as the Sentinel’s ethics code notes, “We should help the reader to evaluate the worth of the information by providing as much description of the source as possible without revealing his or her identity.”
Failure to follow those guidelines undermines the credibility not only of the reporter who wrote the article but of the rest of the news organization, as well. Readers need more than just the word “sources” to have confidence that what they’re being told is true.
