Elon Musk sent me an email last week. In it, he accused a British cave rescuer of being "a child rapist" who took a "12-year-old bride." He didn't provide any evidence of those claims.
He also called me a "fucking asshole."
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Your code of ethics doesn't have anything specific about on the record and off the record.
The only thing mentioning off the record sources goes against what you said in the article. It assumes off the record unless they agree.
🔗buzzfeed.com/shani/the-buzz
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Generally, I would expect a reporter to honor such a request without first agreeing to it. Whether or not it breaks code of ethics is debatable (nothing in the link shared by this reporter says agreement must take place). But good luck ever getting someone to trust you or ...
give you important background info again. Any reporter who would do this would end up only hurting their career in the end.