Two Knives and a Blowfish make a sushi bar



This is good, very very good.

News media consumers could use a lesson on leaks

[H]ere is a modest proposal for clearing up the confusion these stories often create. Why don't news outlets start using a set of standard warning symbols to accompany any news story based on leaks?

Every such story would come with a graphic icon of a leaking water tap, and would include a legend to define other key symbols that would be inserted to flag leakers' self-serving motives:

Knife -- Warning: The purpose of this leak is to hurt or destroy the source's political enemy. (Mr. Novak's CIA agent disclosure needed such an icon.)

Pointing finger -- Warning: The source is attempting to shift blame to someone else. (This icon would have been suitable for the rush-to-war leaks cited above.)

Blowfish -- Warning: The anonymous source is puffing up himself or his boss. Be skeptical. (This icon should be used for virtually every anecdote leaked from the White House about a president at work.)

Balloon -- Warning: trial balloon. If the proposed change in policy described in this story draws boos, it will be disowned by the administration as a figment of the reporter's imagination.

Of course, my icon idea is itself a trial balloon that almost certainly will be shot down. News outlets are unlikely to admit that some of their reports might pose consumer safety hazards.

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