How many reliable sources do we need before a story can be acted on? Journalists need at least two, it seems:
Today, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan lectured the media about a "journalistic standard that should be met" before running with a story. Fine, but isn't there also a political standard of accountability that should be met as well? McClellan's issue with the Newsweek story was that it was "based on a single anonymous source who cannot personally substantiate the report."
Remember when we learned that the evidence for Iraq's supposed mobile biological weapons labs came from an unreliable source? What was McClellan's response then?
QUESTION: Does it concern the President that the primary source for the intelligence on the mobile biological weapons labs was a guy that U.S. intelligence never every interviewed?
MCCLELLAN: Well, again, all these issues will be looked at as part of a broad review by the independent commission that the President appointed… But it's important that we look at what we learn on the ground and compare that with what we believed prior to going into Iraq.
[White House Press Gaggle, 4/5/04]