Sources say once again

I asked a simple question. Why is it OK to write "sources close to" when the subject is the source?

Obviously your short posts are grown-up conversation, but my replies are juvenile. In any of my stories, if I observe something on my own, I don't attribute it. Who knows what the Strib reporter saw?

As for the ESPN article, it's a piss-poor job of reporting, but reporting that is commonplace with ESPN or the NY Times.

 

So you would trust a source more than your reporter's own eyes? You must be next in line for a corporate job.