And it gives Reilly the vehicle to go with the story. This, however, is far from the perfect situation. Relying on anonymous sources creates credibility questions. As a general rule, editors insist on knowing the identity of the source from the writer before publication. They prefer to use names whenever possible.
Names allow the reader to judge the quality of the source.
Without the name or names, it leaves open to suggestions that the writer either is floating a story or it is based on bad information. Dan Evans, the former assistant general manager of the White Sox, says in his days with the team more than half of the stories on possible trades or other moves relying on sources were incorrect. That could be the case with Jordan. The lack of a named source has made Reilly the target. Reilly even was ripped by Fox Sports Net's Jack Haley, which has to be a new career low.