"Colleagues told me to join our internal tip-sharing Slack channel #federal-workers, then talk to Washington economics editor Mike Madden, who was coordinating our DOGE coverage. I started copying and pasting tips there as fast as I could, scraping out identifying details. Then, phone buzzing every few seconds, I speed-walked around the building until I found Mike. Skipping with grace over the fact we'd never met (and I didn't work for him), he ferried me to every corner of the seventh floor: Meet the team covering technology."
"After consulting Post lawyers, I developed what we felt was the safest possible sourcing system. If I planned to use someone in a story, I asked them to send me a picture of their government ID, then tried to forget it. I kept notes from reporting conversations in an encrypted drive, never writing down anyone's name. To Google-check facts and identities, I used a private browser with no search history. I retitled every Signal chat by agency - "Transportation Employee," "FDA Reviewer," "EPA Scientist" -"
Federal employees sent private Signal messages revealing daily suicidal thoughts and profound feelings of worthlessness. Reporters collected tips through internal channels, copying, anonymizing, and rapidly coordinating with editors. Sourcing procedures required ID photos, encrypted note storage, private-browser fact-checking, and avoidance of written names. Signal chats were retitled by agency to obscure identities. The reporting presented a picture of government workers enduring severe psychological harm amid political attacks on government institutions.
Read at Emptywheel
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