4 authors? If it’s the Washington Post, that usually means it’s filled with even more BS than usual.
There’s no way this little blurb required four authors, so it’s serving some other purpose. They do it fairly frequently of late. I’ve begun to suspect that they play the multi-author shell game in order to make connecting the dots as far as individual relationships more difficult, as well as to dissuade libel suits due to complicating and greatly adding to the expense of doing so.