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There is a difference between someone who is a confidential source on a story, and someone who is the subject of a story - it appears the NYT argue that those who are a story's subject are fair game for full-naming. However people have found a number of past stories which respect subjects' wishes for pseudonyms or anonymity, so it appears to be a rule that is unevenly enforced at best.

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I am going to give the NYT itself the benefit of the doubt and guess that, if there is a policy, it's not one that says that reporters must use real names in situations like this. One would hope that it actually says that reporters MAY use real names, at their discretion.

That said, considering what a crappy track record the press has with respecting the privacy of pseudonymous Internet personalities (I'm thinking Naomi Wu, sure, but also that one article where the author shamelessly put way way way too much work into trying to track down and out _why), perhaps that's pollyannaish of me.

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