A curiously odd New York Times article caught my attention that concerned Trump’s plan to overhaul and/or privatize the VA hospital system. The article originally gained some humorous attention because it described a senior transition official providing absolutely no details but later asserting that “the idea is to come up with a solution that solves the problem.” (Umm, thanks.)
But pay a little closer attention to what seems to be a downright bizarre example of “anonymous sourcing”:
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald J. Trump is considering a plan to allow military veterans to opt out of medical care at Veterans Affairs hospitals and instead see private doctors of their choosing, a senior transition official told reporters here on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump met with several executives of private hospital systems at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Wednesday. After the meeting, Mr. Trump called out to reporters, saying he wanted to describe his ideas for changes to the Department of Veterans Affairs, but then quickly directed one of his senior aides to describe the proposals under consideration.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, provided no details about how the plans would work, how much they would cost, or the possibility of unintended consequences from privatizing part of the V.A.’s sprawling medical system.
Wait, what? The President-elect calls for a “press availability” to describe a new policy, turns the microphone over to a senior aide to give more detail, and then that aide demands to be an anonymous source??
What does that even mean? Do the reporters know the aide’s identity? If not, why not? And if he is standing at the podium, answering questions at the invitation and direction of the President-elect, why would his identity need to be concealed in the reporting? Isn’t this an unexplained step too far? (And just plain weird?)
There have been a lot of pieces criticizing the over-reliance by the press on anonymous sources, but alarm bells should be going off if anonymous sources can step into the middle of a presidential Q&A, no?