Well since they use confidential sources they must be trustworthy. How can you not trust the NY Times, CNN, Wapo, ect since they are reporting the same thing in the same wording from a confidential source it must be true.
A community is low on a Respect scale if common courtesy is withheld from large groups of people on account of their political attitudes.
...in a downright despotism opposition is dangerous whether the despotism is official or whether it is unofficial...
A community rates low on the Information scale when the press, radio, and other channels of communication are controlled by only a few people and when citizens have to accept what they are told.
See how a community trains its teachers
...these students are being taught to accept uncritically whatever they are told. Questions are not encouraged.
And if books and newspapers and the radio [and facebook and youtube and...] are officially controlled the people will read and accept exactly what the few in control want them to. Government censorship is one form of control. The newspaper that breaks the government censorship rule can be suspended. It is also possible for newspapers and other lines of communication to be controlled by private interests...
Democracy (Encyclopedia Britannica film, circa 1946)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx25aMPvbJo
The newspapers of a real democracy meet these tests...
Newspaper checks.
1. Balance of coverage
2. Disclosure of source
3. Competence of staff
Add to that, "anonymous" confidential sources and you have the very definition of fake news because no one can check their sources.
If no one can cross check their sources, they can just make sh*t up and call it "news".
Thankfully, President Trump exposed it as "fake news" and the MSM hasn't been the same since.
If President Trump did nothing else in his presidency than to expose the media as fake news, he has done more than any other president in my lifetime. Count our blessings for this man. He is one of a kind.
Confidential = made up