USA Today has partially retracted its story about US telephone companies handing over customer phone records under contract with the National Security Agency (NSA). The paper acknowledged that it cannot prove BellSouth or Verizon had contracts to provide customer calling records to the NSA.
USA Today said that its reporters had read sections of the original article to sources at the companies prior to publication. BellSouth did not deny its participation; Verizon said it wouldn’t comment on issues involving national security.
The bulk of the story, however, has been confirmed by congress: “Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees confirm that the National Security Agency has compiled a massive database of phone call records. But some lawmakers also say that cooperation by the nation’s telecommunication companies was not as extensive as first reported by USA Today on May 11.”
Writing for the Washington Post, Frank Ahrens and Howard Kurtz point out the problems of using anonymous sources:
“The correction illustrates the difficulty of reporting sensitive and often classified government actions, as anonymous sources sometimes backtrack, pursue their own agendas by leaking selective information or say more than they know. News organizations attempt to assemble authoritative stories from multiple sources and agencies, creating plenty of room for potential error.”
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