Anonymous sources get to smear smear people in service of their agenda without using their names. Without ever having to be scrutinized. Without ever having to answer a question. Without having to provide a shred of evidence. Meanwhile, the accused is left to prove a negative.

And then, the anonymous source story is reported by the rest of the media, and it& #39;s no longer "anonymous sources say" it becomes "The Atlantic is reporting." So most of the people who see it don& #39;t even know the sourcing.

There& #39;s no way that anyone thinks this is decent, worthwhile journalism. People only pretend to think it is because it vindicates their pre-existing beliefs about the subject of the story. The word for it is not "journalism." It& #39;s gossip.

For every Nick Sandmann or Anthony Scaramucci-Russia lie that& #39;s proven false, there are probably a hundred more that are never proven false because it& #39;s essentially impossible.