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Reader question: Please explain “on side” in this: “Journalists who have access to highly placed government and corporate sources have to keep them on side by not reporting anything adverse about them or their organisations.” My comments: Keep them on side? Keep them on your side, that is. Keep them happy so that they’ll stay on your side, keep supporting you and not doing anything against you. So that, in short, they’ll keep feeding you stories from time to time. It’s an open secret that journalists cultivate relationships with government officials and corporate executives, people who are in the know, so to speak. Journalists cultivating relations with public officials and business executives? There is something called conflict of interest, isn’t there? You’re right. Very correct, in fact. Still, it’s a fact of life that journalists covet those relationships, and for obvious reasons. Close, trusting relationships with those guys will get reporters inside stories. If people in the position of power trust you, they’ll feed you stories others don’t have, sometimes leading to a scoop (which is a story for you to report first), sometimes even leading to an exclusive scoop (which is a story you, only you, have). You’ve got to be careful with those relationships, though. Sometimes they feed you stories to serve their own purposes rather than public good. They may feed you tales that are biased and untrue. For example, they may tell you a tale to put themselves or their political party or company in a better light. Or they may spread a rumor to ruin the reputation of a political opponent or a business rival. | 
