blind quote (1969)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

>From "The Note" (ABC News), on Mike Allen's article in this week's _Time_:

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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=156238
These blind quotes contain information from conversations with the
President that reflects badly on him — something that rarely happens in
this White House and something this President can't stand.
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"Blind quotes" are of course different from "blind items", which I
discussed in this post:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0506B&L=ADS-L&P=R1750

A "blind item" conceals the identity of a gossipmonger's subject, while a
"blind quote" conceals the identity of a reporter's source. More typically
a "blind quote" is called "anonymous" (or "anonymously sourced").

OED has cites for "blind (= 'unsigned') advertisement" back to 1842, but
nothing for "blind quote" or anything similar. The earliest I could find
in the databases is from 1969, which seems rather late:

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1969 _Bucks Co. Courier Times_ (Pa.) 29 Aug. 11/4 He described the
Bulletin account as "full of deliberate misstatements of facts, untruths,
blind quotes and unjustified innuendoes" and contended Levy had publicly
stated he was "out to get me."
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--Ben Zimmer