> Conditions on reporting turn reporters ever so slightly from press to publicist. Only if that obliged them to report what the source said uncritically, which

> Conditions on reporting turn reporters ever so slightly from press to publicist. Only if that obliged them to report what the source said uncritically, which it doesn't at all. I mean, I'm not defending the principle, but realistically it's where we are. e.g. the Trump administration has outright said that they will fire anyone leaking information to the press. So the only way to get information about what going on in there is to allow your source to be publicly anonymous. > you have to imagine that some reporters will agree to change a conversation into an "off-the-record" one in exchange for access or a scoop. Corruption exists in every industry and journalism is no different. The question for any reader is working out who they trust. The NYT says here that they explicitly ban that practice, and you can either take their word for it or not, I suppose. I don't know how you'd disprove a negative in this context.