Invite Jack Shafer to the after-party! USA Today claims they've reduced the number of anonymous sources in its articles by 75 precent. Editor Ken Paulson, who took over in April 2004, says they're down from about a dozen a week or just three or four.

Paulson also must be informed at the end of each day about each case of an anonymous source being used.

At the time he instituted the policy, Paulson created the position of standards editor, someone who tracks the anonymous sources in the paper each day. He said that person, Adell Crowe, has tabulated 62 instances of anonymous sourcing since the beginning of the year, an average of less than four per week.

It's just a shame fewer and fewer people are reading newspapers these days, isn't it? Just when you can start trusting them again. Sorta. Kinda. Not really.