We do not print unconfirmed stories just because they are juicy, or just to beat our competition. We know we will be held accountable for our accuracy. We hope that readers will judge The Post by its reliability. Nothing is more important to us than our credibility. We realize many readers are infuriated by anonymous sourcing.
Many journalists are, too.
But we also think our readers should know that sometimes granting anonymity to sources is the only way to acquire publishable information on matters of interest and importance to them. So, if we have confidence in our information, we will print it. We have thought so from the day we published the first Lewinsky story. It was based on our discovery that independent counsel Kenneth Starr had broadened his investigation of the president after hearing tape-recorded conversations in which the former White House intern had suggested that the president and his friend Vernon Jordan might have suborned perjury or obstructed justice. Traditional newspaper journalism leaves insufficient room for dialogue between journalists and their readers.