ABC 13's Jessica Willey Goes Full Tabloid

Houston TV Reporter Gives Political Operatives Cover to Make Anonymous Personal Attacks Against Local Judge

In a report that aired last month, ABC 13’s Jessica Willey published harsh, personal attacks from an anonymous source targeting 178th Court Judge Kelli Johnson. In her story, Willey granted opponents of Johnson the ability have free reign to be quoted without being identified in a widely broadcast TV report, a clear violation of basic journalistic standards.

From the report:

ABC13 spoke to people who work in the courthouse. One described Johnson's manic behavior and said, "She's a danger to herself and to the community."

Why it matters: There’s a reason why mainstream news publications rarely allow the use of anonymous quotes - it draws a distinction between actual news and sources that can be trusted vs. tabloid fodder. In this case, Willey squarely landed on the latter.

It gets worse: Willey also relied upon conservative political pundit Mark Jones - who does not have a law degree or expertise on the judicial system - to pile on to the attack. In the story, Jones weighs in on the allegations without having any firsthand knowledge of the claims. It’s worth noting that the right-leaning Baker Institute professor Jones has a long record of spewing conservative talking points in media stories under the guise of being a “non partisan” political expert.

What she said: We reached out to Willey several times to get her response to our questions, including why she relied on Mark Jones for this story and why she ignored previous reports of other judges being absent form the bench. She has declined to respond. If she does so, we’ll update our post.

Zoom out: Judges are often at a disadvantage when attacked by political opponents in the media as they are ethically restrained from publicly commenting on their administrative duties.

The bottom line: Only rarely do trusted journalists grant anonymity to sources, and when they do it’s a high bar to clear. For example, when a source can clearly demonstrate that the information they have is in the public interest or there is a real personal threat to the source if they are identified. Even then, AP guidance cites that anonymity should only be granted in order to provide information, not opinions (as was the case in Willey’s report).