Question about journalistic ethics

[Orangepeel]

(I'm talking about real ethics for real journalists, not bushbot talking heads)

say, just for the sake of argument, that a journalist (let's call him Dan) was given potentially explosive material by a source who was promised confidentiality.

Then, say, that it turned out that the source had completely screwed him over by giving him bogus stuff. Since the source wasn't honest, would the promise of confidentiality be binding?

[Goldom]

1. my ethics say no

but what's he gonna do? reveal the guy's name and wait for some mobsters to go take him out? really.. what good would it do?

[Djinn]

2. you don't reveal sources

for me that's given, atleast not if you ever want people to come to you with stuff in the future - that said it's also up to the journalist to check out what they've been given - they get tonnes of dodgy stuff "passed on" to them by various fruit-loops they have to make the call whether it's legit or not.