Letting sources see copy

Should journalists let sources see drafts of copy? It's a warmly debated question among hacks. That's partly because there is no one-size-fits-all answer. And plenty of people who think there is.

Without rehearsing the issues (another day, perhaps), it is interesting to note from a profile of Seymour Hersh, journalistic hero to many of us, that the great man does it as a matter of course. From a piece by Julian Borger in today's Graun:

Finally, Hersh sets out on late-night drives, dropping drafts of his stories through the letterboxes of his sources to give them a chance to confirm he has interpreted their information correctly and that he is not going to publish anything that will put the US at risk.

To some editors, this would be a disciplinary offence.

Les