But where is the backup for the “he said she said” that readers are so tired of? What’s the sourcing?
It comes in the fifth paragraph — the basis for much of the story and one that’s so hard to grasp that I had to read it twice to understand what it was saying.
It goes like this:
“The accounts of what witnesses have told local and federal law enforcement authorities come from some of those witnesses themselves, law enforcement authorities and others in Ferguson.”
Once you’ve absorbed that — the basis of the “sharply conflicting accounts” — you might ask: “And from whom, exactly, has The Times learned of these accounts?” Here’s the answer, which immediately followed in the article:
“Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.”
The implicit answer is “trust us.”
http://nyti.ms/1pX0OTN
