Because I trust the reporters at RFA and RFA's long-earned reputation not to select Sally the receptionist as a credible source. That's the difference between bloggers and journalists.

That's why I want to know who this person is, and why I asked the critic for more information about him. I trust RFA more than I trust some rando commenter on HN.

You also have to weigh that with how unusual the news is. The more unlikely the event the more credible the source would need to be.

This doesn't seem impossible knowing the CCP, but it would take more than a single source rumor before I'd consider it credible.

> RFA's long-earned reputation

Does RFA have a much better reputation than I realized?