Reply #12: Two quick points:

[Chomp]

1. I am very, very dubious about the proposed plan to "out" the sources should the story go tits-up. It is the reporter's responsibility to either believe or not believe his soruces. So even if the reporter has been deliberately lied to, it is still their call to publish and be damned. Blaming/outing a souce after the fact just compounds the primary mistake (even if the source is a dirty lying troublemaker).

And suppose the reporter outs someone who simply made a mistake without malice? That would be nothing short of a disgrace.

I think journalistic ethics would probably uphold this view.


2. Are indictments routinely issued on Sundays?