IF EVEN traditional journalism doesn’t always quote sources of news stories or opinions for attribution, social media is even less scrupulous about unnamed sources, usually out of the thin threads of their imagination or bias.
Anonymous news sources, while providing even the substance of a story, tend to also increase the level of speculation and slant often to benefit the source or his patron at the expense of balanced reporting.
It can be a battle of posted videos of CCTV footage of a military assault on the home of a local politician being sprayed with bullets with actual people falling off their chairs to their deaths and a solo plea of a suspect making a case for innocence. After such attributable scenarios, the anonymous sources start to chime in.
News sources request anonymity either because they are not supposed to publicly say what they are saying or are likely to have their motives questioned if their identities are revealed. This journalistic device (akin to a witness protection program for accusers) does not specify real persons but “sources,” “witness on the scene,” or “strategically located passengers who saw the first part of the altercation.”
Off-the-record disclosures cover matters too sensitive to be publicly revealed, or still needing further verification. Informal sources, sometimes even when named, may turn out to be unrecognizable anyway, just happening to be on the scene. Such random witnesses can provide angles on the two differing narratives, maybe to even belie what the video is clearly showing.
Some columns, especially on movie personalities whether looking like the “before” in a diet program, or still svelte, are the result of off-the-record, even off-the-cuff, remarks, gleaned from eavesdropping on neighboring tables or trolling anonymous sources.
The “blind item” is a revered tradition in entertainment reporting. The involvement of a TV host in a fuel scam of a company that elected him as chairman or the declaration of ingratitude (they imprisoned me in box office hit movies) by a wannabe Hollywood starlet in Marvel movies attract bashers. These too are mostly anonymous with fictitious aliases.
Blind items have also become accepted fare in corporate gossip. It does not take much guesswork sometimes to identify an individual in the columns if the details are specific enough. Unlike movie personalities who do the rounds of talk shows to press their denials (she only raised her voice but spoke lovingly to the counter clerk using terms of endearment accompanied by cooing sounds), corporate types simply go abroad and hide from interviews.
Demolition jobs are becoming occupational hazards in politics, entertainment, and now business as well. Even unnamed subjects are described with enough details to allow the reader or target to guess correctly without googling the details — the tycoon has a squabbling brood of multiple families jockeying for control of airlines and banks.
It is good then for news subjects to be adept at dodging splatter from brown stuff flying off the fans. They can learn from politicians who draw on a full range of answers: This is clearly politically motivated. These are old charges that are being resurrected. I have already been cleared of this particular allegation. Isn’t this a different woman?
The newest wrinkle in the game of non-attribution is a local innovation, just like mud wrestling and pole dancing. A news source can give an opinion on the need to review airport security after the incident with a noisy Thai national, what with the lack of functioning CCTV in a particular terminal. It is possible to be cited for saying this, and still be technically off the record because the opinion is expressed in private, intended only for friends having a drink. (I didn’t realize there were reporters around.) Such personal pronouncements can still take on an official tone when reported, even only as a blind item.
The line between statements for attribution and opinions that are off the record blur in our media-heavy environment boosted by social media. Every personality and issue are fair game to be exposed and discussed, and all public behavior is reported immediately in the social media of blogs and tweets.
No one is accountable for spreading even fake news… if this is a blind item.
Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda
