The Washington Post's recent controversial reporting on the Secret Service is facing fresh scrutiny after new revelations put in question the Post's reliance on unnamed sources.

In late October, it was revealed that David Nieland, the lead investigator in the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) 2012 review of the Secret Service prostitution scandal, had resigned from DHS after facing allegations he personally solicited a prostitute. The Post had relied heavily on Nieland in addition to an anonymous source for its prostitution story on October 8. On November 1, The Post was forced to correct a story that improperly alleged an armed “felon” entered an elevator with President Obama during his visit to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in September - while he had an arrest record, the armed security guard “had not been convicted of a felony.” Finally, a report from an independent Inspector General described “problematic” monitoring of an employee's home as lasting a few days, not more than two months, as the Post had originally alleged. 

Now, Huffington Post senior media reporter Michael Calderone has questioned the Post's heavy reliance on unnamed sources in light of these revelations. In a November 3 article, Calderone turned to the Post's latest correction as an example of a troubling trend: 

News outlets are often forced to update stories with additional details that emerge after publication. But for the Post, whose reporting led to the resignation of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, the correction could prove costly. Its coverage of the embattled agency was widely praised in media circles and had been expected to rack up journalism prizes, but now, three separate stories have come under scrutiny.

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Taken together, these instances raise questions about the sources, often anonymous, the Post relied on for its coverage of the Secret Service. Even so, executive editor Marty Baron has continued to defend the paper's reporting, as he did again Monday in an email to The Huffington Post.

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Baron did not respond to a question about how the Post remains confident in the other details provided by its anonymous sources, given that the claim that Tate was a felon is inaccurate.