Not excusing the article, but it feels very rare that we get someone "on the record" or an objective "this is actually happening due to the information we have" out of journalism. It's opinion and supposition disguised as fact.
Obviously it's because of NDAs, punishments for going on-record and personal safety, but it still feels like that shouldn't be an excuse for shoddy articles.
Even in science we mostly have a “bunch of facts that probably point to a specific conclusion” and that’s usually the best we can get.
Thats the opinion part
Each fact in this article references back to itself. When you strip everything away, the only question is, do you trust CNN as a source of factual news?
For a lot of Americans that is a resounding NO.
I suppose that's accurate, but...