If you saw the Herald-Leader’s front page Thursday — or kentucky.com for a few hours early Thursday morning — you saw something you very rarely see in this newspaper or on this web site: a staff-written story without full attribution.
The Herald-Leader was the only newspaper to report Thursday morning that lawyers for Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Attorney Gen. Greg Stumbo were negotiating to settle the political hiring investigation that has overshadowed all other news from Frankfort for 15 months. But the sources of that information weren’t identified. The story was confirmed by Stumbo a few hours after our newspaper hit the streets, and the court approved the negotiated settlement later in the day. The developing story was updated throughout the day on kentucky.com, and other news media followed it as well.
In eight years as managing editor, I can recall only a few of other stories we have written where we didn’t fully identify our sources. That’s because we believe that full attribution makes for more credible, honest and accurate journalism. Readers know exactly where the information is coming from without having to wonder about any hidden agendas that unidentified sources might have. Because of our policy, reporters must go to their editors when they think they have solid, important information they can’t get “on the record.” That leads to good discussions about other sources to try. And, almost always, our talented reporters find a way to get the story — with full attribution.
So why did we deviate from our usual practice with this story? Because veteran Frankfort reporter Jack Brammer and political reporter Ryan Alessi had enough good sources, on both sides of the fence, that we knew for certain that negotiations were under way. However, because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, and concern that the court didn’t want preliminary information leaked, nobody involved was willing to go public.
At that point, it became a question of whether it was more important to stick to our usual rules of attribution, or to let the public know about a major development in Kentucky’s most important political story. So, late Wednesday night, we chose to go with the story. We kept it simple, though, even though several sources told us most points of the eventual settlement. We didn’t want to report anything unsourced that we weren’t absolutely certain of. We also didn’t want to report settlement details that might change as negotiations progressed.
We’re one of the few news organizations with such strict rules of attribution. We wish other news organizations were as strict as we are. And we wish we could extend our practice to the wire service reports we publish, especially those from Washington, where it seems nobody ever wants to go “on the record” about anything.
So, despite this exception, don’t look for the Herald-Leader to change its attribution rules, or make exceptions very often. We still think full, “on the record” attribution produces the most credible journalism. Do you agree?
Tom Eblen
Managing Editor
Here in Seattle. waiting for my son to pick up a purchase at the computer store, Lil and I checked the Lexington Herald- Leader on line.
And read two Tom Eblen editorials, both superb commentaries - one laying kudos on the staff for plane crash coverage and the other explaining attribution policy in copnnection with Fletcher-Stumbo settlement.
This is to compliment Tom on his thoughtfulness in sharing these thoughts with your readers.
But more, I can’t tell you how proud we are of our hometown paper, both for the above and for its clear superiority over the two papers in much larger and otherwise wonderfully cultured and sophisticated city of Seattle,