Quindlen writes we've become a country of closed minded people prone to conspiracy theories: "...everything now is a conspiracy: a right-wing conspiracy, a Clinton conspiracy, above all a media conspiracy. " Then she complains Newsweek's not given a break for making an honest mistake when they mistakenly relied on a flawed anonymous source.
Quindlen needs to do a little root-cause analysis, and understand "...most organizations spend far more time looking for culprits than causes and because of this misdirected effort seldom really gain the benefit they could gain from understanding the foundation of the unwanted situation. "
Being honest about the anonymous source would dispel a lot conspiracy theories. Conspiring to hide a lying source only adds fuel to the conspiracy theorists.