A reporter should consider a source’s motivations in addition to confirming whether the information is reliable (“Telling Secrets,” July/August). This is true, regardless of whether the source is a leak or an official pronouncement. For instance, every reporter and news organization that complacently or supportively reported the existence of weapons of mass destruction and connections to Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq abetted a massive United States–committed war crime. The press should question more, not less.

Michael Cammer ’88

New Rochelle, N.Y.