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That's one possibility. The other possibility is that the journalist mentions anonymous sources because he/she does not have any and is simply making stuff up.

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That’s not journalism, that’s something else. There used to be fact checkers and editors used to have to verify the sources. I realise that the press barons no longer have any integrity, but it certainly used to be the rule.

That’s why you verify the information from other sources.

Thank you Sherlock for this invaluable suggestion.

Quite often this is simply not possible.

Next time I read "according to our anonymous sources in the FBI", I'll make sure I reach out to them for verification.

If you can’t verify it then that’s a rumor. The world doesn’t owe you an explanation and you can’t be informed of everything.

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