Van Susteren: Anonymous Sourcing ‘Overuse’ One of ‘Biggest Crimes’ in Media Today

EXCERPT:

VAN SUSTEREN: "I mean, there used to be a real bright line between opinion and fact, and that bright line is no longer there. And I think that’s what Ted’s talking about on the front page of 'The New York Times.' Look, you know, it’s important to have opinion because we want a robust debate in this country on important issues. The problem is when  robust debate and facts are so intertwined that you don’t know if it’s someone’s opinion or fact. One of the biggest crimes that’s going on in journalism right now is the overuse of anonymous sources. I used to be anonymous sources if you thought, you know, a whistleblower or national security secrets. Now they use drive-by smears. If you pick up any newspaper and highlight it, it’ll say 'senior White House official' or 'senior ex-White House official' or something like that. Nobody has the guts and the courage to stand up and be accounted for when they make statements to the press. That’s the problem, so we can’t challenge them. A lot of drive-by smears, it goes both ways, Republican and Democrat, and I think it’s terrible that we have so much of it. But that — you know, if we could clean that up."