Plausible doesn’t mean “it happened.” It’s plausible that a convicted thief might steal again; that doesn’t give a news outlet to write, “anonymous sources said Joe Thief stole something from Target.” No evidence at all other than “Joe Thief” could have conceivably stolen something just because he happened to be at Target.
A lot of things are “plausible” but accusing people of having done the thing versus, it would be possible doesn’t rise to the standards necessary to maintain journalistic integrity.
Enough with printing anonymously sourced speculation as fact! Good journalists get sources on the record and, if they use anonymous sources, use them for background and not as primary sources. See Woodward and Berstein’s work on Watergate on how to use anonymous sources correctly.
A lot of things are “plausible” but accusing people of having done the thing versus, it would be possible doesn’t rise to the standards necessary to maintain journalistic integrity.
Enough with printing anonymously sourced speculation as fact! Good journalists get sources on the record and, if they use anonymous sources, use them for background and not as primary sources. See Woodward and Berstein’s work on Watergate on how to use anonymous sources correctly.