Reporters were trying to weaponize the whisper network against Weinstein for years. They were part of the network, and managed to contact a number of his victim

Reporters were trying to weaponize the whisper network against Weinstein for years. They were part of the network, and managed to contact a number of his victims. But they couldn't get anyone to go on the record, for (I hope) obvious reasons. The woman who went to the police had her case dropped and her name splashed across gossip magazines, probably stories planted by Weinstein. Without someone on record there wasn't a story that would pass journalistic standards. Maybe we should relax those standards, I don't know. If a reporter has a dozen separate accusers with correlated stories who are not mutually in contact, maybe they should be able to publish without having to get any of the accusers to put their name to it. But would it have the same effect as having accusations with names attached? Or would the accused just say "I won't respond to anonymous allegations" and then the story goes away.