It was quite a day for anonymice.
The lead article in the Thursday Styles section, about the supposed news that Uber and Lyft have put a damper on the sex that used to take place in the backseats of New York City taxis, includes the following attributions:
a 28-year-old marketing manager in the tech industry named Suzanne, who asked that her surname not be used because, well, she's a marketing manager, not an adult-film star...
Stephanie, a 23-year-old publicist in Manhattan who asked that her last name not be published because of the damage it might do to her business
Chris, 31, an executive at a tech start-up who also requested that his last name not be used
Then the foreign section has an account of a stabbing attack on the American ambassador in South Korea:
"He sat at the head table and was exchanging name cards when a man approached the ambassador and toppled him and attacked him in the face with a knife," said one of the South Korean reporters at the scene, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his paper's regulations on giving information to other news organizations.
On this evidence, it does not look like public editor Margaret Sullivan's "AnonyWatch" campaign against the newspaper's over-use of anonymous sources is having much positive effect. If anything, her articles may be stiffening the newsroom's resolve to defend its license to grant anonymity.