In the Washington Times, Jennifer Harper writes about a recent study [PDF] by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) that showed a decrease of one-third for the number of anonymous sources used in a large sample of media stories covering the first year of President Reagan’s administration as compared to the first year of President George W. Bush’s term.
What’s it mean? Well, leaving the folks with conspiracy theories aside, it means that journalists are not only relying on more sources who are on the ‘up and up’ and attempting to get more credible sources to share information on the record.
