When I ask State Department for comment on stories they rarely give on record response. State often organizes phone briefings for reporters with senior Trump appointees on the strict condition it can only be used on background, to a senior State official. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1249046469618864131

When I ask White House Office of Management and Budget OMB comment on stories, for example, their public affairs team often tries to make their response attributable to a “senior administration official”—not even to a “spokesperson” to clarify it’s an official response

Reporters all have anonymous sources to protect people giving information they’re not authorized to give out to give readers a picture of what’s actually going on, since official responses are often vague, or unclear or sometimes purposefully gaslight-y

Perhaps reporters (including me) should be more diligent about pushing agencies for on record responses for a variety of reasons. But if the president wants less quotes on background, every federal agency’s public affairs team should take into account the president’s tweets here

One notable exception is the Pentagon, where public affairs officers often always goes on record even in email responses. I wish really wish State and other agencies would do this.

Another thing I’ve noticed is - not regularly but infrequently - State will try to give a response attributed to a ”State Department official” rather than a “State Department spokesperson” which would mask to the reader what the formal response is. FP always clarifies to the best

of it’s ability the source of a quote, particularly to distinguish official public affairs from unofficial/not authorized to speak sources. But if all I can get for the official line is a quote from an anonymous State Department spokesperson, I’m not going to purposefully leave

It out of the story and deprive readers of all viewpoints/responses, including official formal ones simply because it’s State protocol for their spokespeople to respond on background as a generic spokesperson rather than attribute their name to the quote.

additional thought: The past few weeks State has been holding on record briefings on its response to COVID-19 which have been helpful and informative. Latest here: https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-dr-william-walters-deputy-chief-medical-officer-for-operations-principal-deputy-assistant-secretary-julie-chung-bureau-of-western-hemisphere-affairs-and-principal-deputy-assistant-s/