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Anonymous Sources Are Newsworthy—When They Talk to NYT, Not Seymour Hersh David Knox ([link removed])


NYT: Intelligence Suggests Pro-Ukrainian Group Sabotaged Pipelines, U.S. Officials Say

When the New York Times (3/7/23 ([link removed]) ) makes a claim based on anonymous US officials, other media take note—because everyone knows ([link removed]) anonymous US officials wouldn't lie to the New York Times.

The New York Times (3/7/23 ([link removed]) ) on Tuesday ended its month-long boycott of veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh’s February 8 story ([link removed]) claiming the US destroyed the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

The Times didn’t challenge Hersh’s story. It barely mentioned it. Instead, the Times reported “new intelligence” that “suggests” a pro-Ukrainian group was responsible.

No firm details are provided, simply speculation, and the only sources cited are anonymous US officials.

Hersh’s source also is unnamed, but is described as having “direct knowledge of the operational planning” of the operation. In contrast to the Times story’s lack of specifics, Hersh’s 5,000-word narrative provides extensive details of how US officials—at the direction of President Joe Biden—planned and executed the operation, using US Navy divers who used the cover of a NATO naval exercise in June to plant explosives, which were remotely detonated September 26.


** Strikingly different treatment
------------------------------------------------------------

The response of the nation’s major news organizations to the two stories also couldn’t have been more different.

While big news internationally, Hersh’s story was not reported by any of the major US corporate broadcast networks—NBC, ABC and CBS—or the public broadcasters, PBS and NPR. Nor did the nation’s major cable outlets, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, cover the story (FAIR.org, 3/3/23 ([link removed]) ).
WaPo: Intelligence officials suspect Ukraine partisans behind Nord Stream bombings, rattling Kyiv’s allies

The Washington Post (3/7/23 ([link removed]) ) proves that it too is able to find government officials willing to promote the official line with no accountability.

The Washington Post ignored Hersh’s story for two weeks, and then mentioned it (2/22/23 ([link removed]) ) only after Russia cited Hersh’s story in calling for a UN investigation of the bombing. But the Post didn’t hesitate to follow the Times later Tuesday with its own story (3/7/23 ([link removed]) ), headlined “Intelligence Officials Suspect Ukraine Partisans Behind Nord Stream Bombings, Rattling Kyiv’s Allies.” Like the Times, the Post relied solely on anonymous sources to attribute responsibility for the sabotage, who provided little in the way of details about how the bombing was accomplished.

In a striking example of how differently the large corporate news outlets treat Hersh, the Post credited its rival newspaper for breaking the story, but did not mention Hersh at all.

The Post story did add one significant development—that shortly after the Times story was published, German news media had reported that investigators in Europe “had identified a small team of saboteurs using a yacht rented from a company in Poland that was ‘apparently owned by two Ukrainians.’”


** 'First significant lead'
------------------------------------------------------------

Fox News (3/7/23 ([link removed]) ) also jumped on the Times story later Tuesday, but added nothing new. Hersh’s story was mentioned in two sentences at the end of the story and described as a “blog post” that “the White House last month dismissed....”

CNN (3/8/23 ([link removed]) ) also reported the Times story within 24 hours, but with a new element: “The German prosecutors’ office told CNN Wednesday they searched a boat in January that was suspected of carrying explosives.” The CNN story did not mention Hersh.
MSNBC: Intelligence suggests pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged pipelines, US Officials Say

If the New York Times says so, it's news (MSNBC, 3/8/23 ([link removed]) ).

That same day, MSNBC ran a segment featuring NBC News reporter Molly Hunter (3/8/23 ([link removed]) ), who repeated the Times’ claim that its story was “the first significant lead” in the investigation of the bombing. It also failed to mention Hersh.

A statement from German officials confirming that investigators in January had searched a vessel suspected of carrying explosives used in the bombing was reported by NBC News (3/8/23 ([link removed]) ) and the Associated Press. The AP dispatch was picked up by ABC News (3/8/23 ([link removed]) ) and PBS (3/8/23 ([link removed]) ). All credited the Times story; none mentioned Hersh.

NPR did its own report Wednesday (3/8/23 ([link removed]) ), which referenced a high Ukrainian government official “questioning recent reports that a pro-Ukraine group was behind the undersea bombings.” The official was quoted saying the reports by the Times and Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper (3/7/23 ([link removed]) ), which first reported the suspected involvement of a yacht, “had ‘lots of assumptions and anonymous conjecture but not real facts.’"

While giving voice to skepticism about the Times story, NPR did not discuss Hersh’s alternative take.

Summarizing the scorecard, all three major cable news outlets—CNN, MSNBC and Fox News—publicized the Times story within a day of publication. Of the five major corporate and public broadcasters, NBC, ABC, PBS and NPR carried the story; only CBS remained silent.

As for Hersh, the blackout remains, with the sole exception of the two sentences totaling 49 words shirt-tailed to the Fox News report.


** AP embarrasses itself
------------------------------------------------------------
AP: A global mystery: What’s known about Nord Stream explosions

What's not known about Nord Stream explosions (AP, 3/8/23 ([link removed]) ): how to spell Seymour Hersch [sic].

The Associated Press (3/8/23 ([link removed]) ) finally mentioned Hersh’s reporting late Wednesday, in a round-up piece headlined “A Global Mystery: What’s Known About Nord Stream Explosions.” But the 176-year-old nonprofit cooperative news agency, which prides itself on unbiased reporting adhering to old-school journalistic standards of objectivity ([link removed]) , managed to both disrespect Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most famous investigative reporters in the nation, and embarrass itself by misspelling his name:

After months of few developments in the probes, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersch, known for past exposes of US government malfeasance, self-published a lengthy report in February alleging that President Joe Biden had ordered the sabotage, which Hersch said was carried out by the CIA with Norwegian assistance.

That report, based on a single, unidentified source, has been flatly denied by the White House, the CIA and the State Department, and no other news organization has been able to corroborate it. Russia, followed by China, however, leaped on Hersch’s reporting, saying it was grounds for a new and impartial investigation conducted by the United Nations.

The misspelling was not corrected until the next day.


** Zero times any number is zero
------------------------------------------------------------
Snopes: Claim That US Blew up Nord Stream Pipelines Relies on Anonymous Source

Snopes (2/10/23 ([link removed]) ) has not yet run a piece criticizing the New York Times article (3/7/23 ([link removed]) ) for relying on anonymous sourcing.

AP wasn’t alone in casting doubt about Hersh’s story by stressing it is “based on a single, unidentified source,” while failing to note the Times piece also rested entirely on anonymous “US officials.”

A Business Insider piece (2/9/23 ([link removed]) ) published the day after Hersh posted his story, derided his account of the bombing as an “evidence-free theory,” noting his claims “appear to rely on a single unnamed source.”

Republished by Yahoo! (2/9/23 ([link removed]) ) and MSN (2/9/23 ([link removed]) ), the Business Insider article was the primary source of an article by the factchecking site Snopes (2/10/23 ([link removed]) ), with the headline “Claim That US Blew up Nord Stream Pipelines Relies on Anonymous Source.”

It can be argued that the New York Times was exempted from such criticism because it didn’t rely on just one source; the plural "US officials" appears 16 times in the story.

But if Hersh's unnamed source has zero credibility, then so does each source included under the umbrella of “US officials” at the Times. The laws of mathematics should apply: Zero times any number is still zero.


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