Michigan Daily’s anonymous source policy

Published on December 5, 2019December 5, 2019 by Mollie Muchna | Reading Time: < 1 minute

Instead of leaving it up to the audience to make assumptions, the Michigan Daily used an editor’s note to explain why a story included anonymous sources. It defined what an anonymous source is, why the sources didn’t want to be identified and then linked to the newsroom’s ethics policy. “In accordance with our ethics policy (which can be found in full in our bylaws), the reporter of this article and two editors have seen the names and fraternity affiliations of our sources, as well as the evidence they provided The Daily,” the editor’s note read.

Mollie Muchna

mollie@trustingnews.org | + posts

Project manager Mollie Muchna (she/her) has spent the last 10 years working in audience and engagement journalism in local newsrooms across the Southwest. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she is also an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism. She can be reached at mollie@trustingnews.org and on Twitter @molliemuchna.