Source obfuscation
The source is hidden.
When a message says 'sources say' or 'people are saying' or 'reportedly,' it's obfuscating the source — attributing claims to unnamed people or diffuse groups, which lowers accountability. You can't evaluate the source because you can't see it.
Truth-adjacency
Truth-adjacent — the pattern's significance depends on whether the claim is true
Department
Office of Narrative Purity (ONP)
Engine Signals
The engine detects these phrases and patterns:
sources saypeople are sayingreportedlyit is believedsome claimmany are callingsources familiar with the matter How to recognize it
The source is a fog. “Sources say” doesn’t say who the sources are, how many there are, or whether they’re in a position to know. The claim floats free of any anchor you could evaluate.
What to ask
- Who exactly is making this claim, and why are they left unnamed?
- What accountability disappears when the source stays vague?
What it looks like when you’re wrong about it
You call out “source obfuscation” but the journalist documented their sourcing standards: two independent sources, editorial verification, and a stated reason for anonymity (source at risk of retaliation). That’s responsible journalism, not obfuscation. The pattern requires the anonymity to prevent evaluation, not to protect a source.
Misuse Guardrails
How this pattern gets misused
Someone calls any anonymous sourcing 'source obfuscation' — including legitimate journalism that protects sources. The vocabulary becomes a tool for demanding that all sources be named, which would endanger whistleblowers and sources at risk.
What it looks like when you're wrong about it
Anonymous sourcing is not inherently obfuscation. It's obfuscation when the anonymity prevents evaluation of the claim's credibility — when 'sources say' replaces any basis for judging whether the sources are reliable. Journalism with documented anonymous sourcing standards (multiple independent sources, editorial verification) is not obfuscation.
Related Patterns
The name is designed to spread. The hook is designed to stick. If you recognized something, share the name.