New York Times editor: 'We take information from all kinds of crackpots. That's called reporting.'

During a June appearance at Hunter College with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., a woman in the audience said to him during the Q and A portion of the event, "I'd like to know why The New York Times signed an agreement with Peter Schweizer, right-winger, to promote his book," a reference to "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich"

"...We did not sign an agreement. That's been mischaracterized. We took information—"

"From a right-wing crackpot like him?"

"We take information from all kinds of crackpots. That's called reporting."

That's a quote from Dean Bacquet, the executive editor of the paper of record.

I am not a reporter. I don't know if it is standard operating procedure to take information from known crazy persons and run that through the reporting process. Dean Bacquet knows more about that business than I do. As a Times subscriber of many years, however, it is uncomfortable to find the head of the newsroom posits that sources could include, for example, the clinically insane. I had always assumed that reporting involved gathering information from credible sources and then running that through the reporting process. Sources that range from persons connected to the topic to experts on the topic.

Perhaps Bacquet is joking. Perhaps what he means is that even a credible source could be a crackpot. Fair enough. But if that is the case, Bacquet should insist his reporters note that upfront. So instead of, "Sources say ..." Just go ahead and write, "Information gathered from a known crackpot says ..."