A newspaper article from the period does not automatically solve the historian's source problem if its decisive information came from an unnamed person. Without knowing who spoke, the researcher cannot readily substantiate the report or judge whether to trust its information. Research into 1920s and 1930s newspapers can therefore involve reconstructing who could have leaked a claim and which journalist or paper received it. The 1900s papers supply a related, sometimes amusing example: attempts to conceal a source can leave the person's identity obvious. This detective work complicates research, but it supports analysis whose evidentiary basis other historians can check.
Notable Point · 1:33-2:43
Anonymous newspaper sources turn historians into detectives
Anonymous attribution in contemporary newspapers can force historians to reconstruct who supplied a claim before treating the report as dependable evidence.