At the exact same time BuzzFeed Politics’ Andrew Kaczynski was puffing himself as The Arbiter Of Journalistic Ethics with some new rules about how it’s now wrong to write stories based on what you’re told by unnamed sources, he was busted cold engaging in a deceit that apparently included editing a post without acknowledging the edit.
As Michelle Malkin’s fabulous Twitchy notes, in the past, Kaczynski has criticized others for not noting editing changes. Previously, Twitchy has caught Kaczynski memory-holing mistakes, most memorably after he was duped by ridiculous Hurricane Sandy photos.
And then there was Kaczynski’s infamous edit of a tweet from Rupert Murdoch.
Oh, please tell us more about ethics, Andrew!
BuzzFeed’s crowning moment today, though, came from Rosie Gray who mocked and criticized our use of unnamed sources with the use of her own, uhm, unnamed sources. I swear I’m not making this up. The story is right here.
So if I understand this correctly, the new rule is that quoting an unnamed source is wrong, unless you’re quoting an unnamed source about an unnamed source.
For the record, an unnamed source told me (not really) that when Ben Smith was staffing BuzzFeed, he pulled over a clown car, peered inside, and said, “You’ll do.”