[dmix]

An anonymous source from a whistleblower: practical and understandable. Anonymous sources from gov officials that just tows an established useful line that benefits them: way, way too common.

I'm a daily reader of NYT and I can't count the number of times I see them use it each year. It's become standard practice enough to not be just some edge case to protect people.

It's like how the government classifies everything because it makes their job easier.

Not knowing the person, agency, level of access, etc behind a quote makes it extremely difficult to take seriously. A ton of trust is being put on NYT that it's not just purposefully fed information or gossip.

[c22]

I think it's "toe the line", like lining up side by side with everyone else on your team.

[fsckboy]

>I think it's "toe the line", like lining up side by side with everyone else on your team.

right, but not quite: toe the line means for example standing on an athletic field right at the out-of-bounds line without letting your toes onto the wrong side of it; said about any rule-based situation, to purposely stay within the rules, indicating an individuals obedience with no implication of "testing" the rules.

[dingnuts]

"a source close to the matter reports" basically implies whatever coming next is bullshit