Apart from him stonewalling us, what really boggled the mind was that in a major newspaper bureau, entire teams, we were to believe, collaborated on a 169-word story with just one actual nugget of news. That’s either an example of phenomenal teamwork and exceptional application of management theory or…that filing stories under the TNN banner helps journalists avoid responsibility for glaring shortcomings in a story – it affords them plausible deniability. This is why Newslaundry has me writing this piece under my actual name and not under the banner of “NL Team”, because if this article is rubbish, you deserve to have a name and a face to ascribe to it. It’s about transparency in an age where the credibility of news is being questioned at every turn and the fact that a bureau chief prefers to hide behind the TNN banner rather than face any questions or responsibility doesn’t inspire faith in the motive behind carrying such a thoroughly neutered article.