Anonymity for Whiners

I meant to link this Byron York story about “the escalating war between Obama and Bush” last week, but it’s relevant again as deeply unpopular former Vice President Dick Cheney engages in an anti-Obama PR campaign for torture. Four times, York grants former White House staffers anonymity to bash the president. And he doesn’t even get much out of them! The rundown of York’s sources:

• “A former Bush aide” who accuses President Obama of being “gratuitous, slightly petty, and slightly obsessive.”

• “Another” former Bushie who calls Obama’s behavior “completely gratuitous.”

• “A third” former Bushie who calls it “unfair.”

• “A Bush veteran” who complains that Obama took unwarranted credit for Webcasting the Easter Egg Roll.

York is a fine reporter who beat just about everyone to the story of the left’s Bush-era infrastructure and think tank-building, but I struggle to see the point of this kind of story and this kind of sourcing.