Our love/hate relationship with anonymous sources

[mcablue]

Like polls, we hate or love anonymous sources depending on whether we like what we hear.

Let me give you an example: McClatchy reported a few weeks ago that President Obama was "leaning toward 34,000 troops." Some people immmediately cast doubt on the report because these sources were "sent by McCaffrey" or were rooted in rumors by unreliable sources. The White House himself immediately jumped and said the President had not made up his mind yet...The result? Obama is sending 34,000 extra troops to Afghanistan.

Now Keith Olbermann is saying, based on anonymous sources (according to a thread here), that the surge will be followed by a withdrawal starting next year. The same ones warning about the unreliability of anonymous sources, those who unrecommended McClatchy's report, are cheering Olberman's assertion as if it's true.

It may be true or not, but it shows you how the human being often clings to what he/she wants to hear.

[Clio the Leo]

1. And then the opposite side cheered Rachel's anonymous source....

.... that she used an hour later.

I found the whole thing ..... hilarious is maybe not the right word given the circumstances ..... but amusing to say the least.

My original intent was to post Keith's reporting as a bit of a glimpse of what the President might say and had been thinking. It was the first detailed reporting of the President's decision I had seen/heard all day. It's cable news reporting, I always take it with a grain of salt. If I had known some of my buddies were going to start popping the proverbial champagne over it, I probably would not have made the thread. ;)