Could Sourcing be the Answer to Britain's Journalism Woes?

As News International's ex-executives and editors are arrested and charged left, right and centre, the Leveson Inquiry continues to drill into why Britian's journalism culture has led it to a plethora of phone hacking and police corruption all in the interests of a front page.


Apart from those in power being in the pockets of journalists, police and vice-versa -- could anonymous sourcing be, well,the source of the issue?

This bit by Charlie Brooker's Newswipe explains it all.

If British Journalists had to TELL people where they got information from unless it was absolutely imperative they hide their source (Watergate style)...Then could we see the end of naughty journos and their even naughtier police officer and politician buddies?

Watch the video and see for yourself, but methinks Leveson needs a new inquiry with sourcing at its core...

Addendum: This has really got me thinking about journalism in Australia and I think we suffer from something similar.. the number of times I had to pick apart a story in the newspapers while I was working at the ABC, only to find that apart from not being clear on who the original source was, the details were wrong, or misrepresented and blown out of proportion. It always left me wondering whose bidding we were all doing...

Wired Reports: U.S Military Encouraged 'Hiroshima' Tactics Against Islam

This is an amazing and confronting piece.

It's on Wired's National Security blog Danger Room where writers Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman obtain documents which show special training US military officers received.

They were encouraged to wave a war on civilians in Islamic countries and Muslims themselves, using Hiroshima style tactics or threatening Saudi Arabia with starvation.

It's pretty full on stuff. The comments are also interesting and offer insight into what Wired's readers think about this.

There's one there by a former officer who confirms this sort of thinking was in the military, he says he left because of it.

Just passing the time - 92 year old DVD bandit

This is one hell-of-a-way to pass the time in retirement. The New York Times reports on a 92 year old man copying bootlegged DVD's and sending them to US soldiers overseas.

The Art Of Compromise

This is a good if dense review of a two new books on compromise, or the lack of it, zoning in on US politics. The books are called 'On Compromise and Rotten Compromises' by Avishai Margalit and The Spirit of Compromise: 'Why Governing Demands It and Campaigning Undermines It' by Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson. Both books explore the idea of compromise, when it is a good thing, and when they should never be made (Margalit more so).

There's more to it than that - have a read of the review in The New Republic, written by Paul Starr, a professor at Princeton University - publishers of both books.

Important ideas at a time when US politics has struggled to find middle ground.