Stephen Bain wrote:
On 7/15/06, Bryan Derksen bryan.derksen@shaw.ca wrote:
I don't even see what's so undignified about this particular incident that anyone would argue it on that basis in the first place. Everyone does boneheaded things from time to time.
This particular incident may only be embarrassing; what is undignified is AP's reportage using a full name.
It's standard journalistic practice to report names unless there's some reason to believe that doing so would cause the person imminent harm (e.g. Mafia witnesses). The main reason is so that news can be verifiable by outside sources. There is also sometimes an exception for sources who have agreed to talk to a journalist on condition of anonymity, but that is increasingly discouraged for the same reason---articles based on "a source who asked not to be named" could be, and sometimes have been, entirely made up.
-Mark