Scenario 4: Anonymous Sources
You are a reporter covering the crime beat at a city newspaper. You ride with officers, hang out at the precinct, know them by name, go for coffee with some of them, know the sergeants and captains, and listen to the police scanner at home so you know when calls go out. You show up on crime scenes often, talk to the police officers, get quotes, and talk to the victims. You've been doing this for about a year. A few of the officers have begun to indicate indirectly that morale is low at the precinct because someone has been stealing seized drugs from the evidence room. The sergeant and captain know about it and are pressuring the beat officers to give up the guilty party, but nobody is talking. Except to you. And nobody wants to go on the record. Your editor wants the story. But the paper's management and editors take a dim view of anonymous sources. The police officers are adamant about not having their names published.