After high‑profile sourcing controversies in the 2000s, The Times instituted some of the strictest anonymous‑source rules in American journalism. Use of anonymity now requires:
The information must be newsworthy and not obtainable by any other means.
The reporter and at least one editor must know the source’s identity.
A senior editor (department head or above) must approve the use of the anonymous material.
Publicly available internal training materials show that in 2024, only a