Journalism tip

I've liked the work of Matthew Wald in the New York Times on the FAA/Southwest airplane inspection scandal, but this should never have appeared in today's story (my emphasis):

One senior executive at another airline, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the agency’s new stance reflects the new tone in aviation safety.

“In the past, you wouldn’t have grounded the whole fleet,” the executive said. “There’s a question of what’s rational and what’s not.”

You want this quote in this story, you have to stand by it. I suspect that it violates the Times's policy on anonymous quotes, too.