say what?

     You may read a news article with a quote form an "unnamed source".  This does not exist. A quote comes from a specific and particular source. The source is named, and anyone reading the quote can check the credentials, where possible, of the person being quoted. An "unnamed source" might as well be "the man on the street" or "overheard in a bar". It may be an interesting article, but the "quote" will not make a point, or win an argument, because we don't know who said it, or if the author merely invented it.
     The other side of the "quote" equation is accuracy. When we see quotation marks, we have the right to assume that the words within the quotation marks are precisely what the speaker said. They may be taken from a written source--one that the reader can check for him or herself. If they are reported as part of a conversation, they must be accurately reported. This is what the quotation marks mean, so anything less than complete accuracy is deception.