Ben Smith, a blogger over at Politico, says he’s worried about who he’s befriending on Facebook and whether his journalistic credibility has been compromised:

…Facebook has some interesting implications for reporters and sources, ones that make me a little nervous. Earlier this year, a campaign staffer I hadn’t ever met or spoken to added me to his list of friends; I emailed him that I was only making him a “friend” because he wasn’t actually a friend. And I didn’t accept a couple of people I actually know as friends to avoid compromising them as sources.

I’ve given that up, partly because I now have more than four “friends,” most of whom aren’t actually sources, and partly because it’s sort of not nice not to accept a friend invitation, which is Facebook’s whole trick.

But it still seems a bit dicey. When a campaign or a government agency is trying to pin down a reporter’s inside source, Facebook might be a good place to start. And when a campaign type is considering leaking to a reporter, couldn’t the fact that you’re “friends” on Facebook make the source queasy?

If only Smith had been so worried about his street cred earlier this year when he falsely reported that John Edwards was dropping out of the campaign due to his wife’s cancer!