Why Reporters Should Let Potential Sexual Assault Victims Talk Off the Record

Most of the time, it’s a good thing when a news outlet pushes its sources and subjects to talk on the record. But a controversy that has dogged the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this summer offers an example of when it isn’t.   The controversy began last month, after the Post-Dispatch reported that a former aide to Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, had had an affair with the former state House speaker, a Republican.