So far, so good. But then the piece turns to an unnamed New Line lawyer, "speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is working on this lawsuit," writes Times reporter Ross Johnson, who says "the money paid to Mr. Jackson so far is in line with the contract he signed." The lawyer is quoted as saying:

Peter Jackson is an incredible filmmaker who did the impossible on Lord of the Rings. ... But there's a certain piggishness involved here. New Line already gave him enough money to rebuild Baghdad, but it's still not enough for him.

Whoa! That's great dish, but shouldn't there be a Times policy against giving a partisan source, in this case a defense attorney, the cover of anonymity to call the plaintiff in a case against his client piggish? As a matter of fact, there is such a published policy limiting what anonymous sources can say in Times articles. In "Confidential News Sources," on the paper's corporate Web site, the policy reads in part:

We do not grant anonymity to people who use it as cover for a personal or partisan attack. If pejorative opinions are worth reporting and cannot be specifically attributed, they may be paraphrased or described after thorough discussion between writer and editor. The vivid language of direct quotation confers an unfair advantage on a speaker or writer who hides behind the newspaper, and turns of phrase are valueless to a reader who cannot assess the source.