"The reputation of that account..."

Reputation of fact checkers, medical 'experts', and authorities has proven to be weaponized and fake news. Unless someone you trust is the source of an assessment of reputation, it's not just worthless. It's an active weapon used constantly against us.

"...the NYT has a history of quoting anonymous sources that turn out to be wrong then you have assessed their reputation."

Most people don't verify, DYOR, and know the falsity of propaganda outlets, because the proofs they are misleading us isn't front page news. The NY Slimes is a perfect example of this, being essentially an outlet for CIA disinformation and propaganda. Reputation is a weapon. Absent a true network of trust, of people we personally know and trust that do verify facts and assess the veracity of publishers, it can only do harm, because lying spooks and larcenous tyrants continually spew disinformation in order to enslave us, and they control accreditation and reputation in the media they own, which is all corporate media (particularly the Journals like Cell, Nature, and NEJM that are utterly prostituted to their funders), and much of 'alternative' media, like Luke Rudkowski, Alex Jones, and Tim Pool, whom are entirely controlled opposition to the official narrative. Outfits like ResearchGate, TrialSiteNews, Redaction Watch, and others that have traditionally sidestepped the Journals to prevent censorship have lately been increasingly captured, prevented publishing, and have retracted contrarian reports, as well.

You know that is the truth.

Edit: please re-read the comment you reply to above, as edited to provide more information regarding the abuse of reputation and accreditation.