Yes. Something else is going on here. I've worked as a journalist and have been asked to reveal my sources. However, to be asked to reveal a source when I hadn't even published a story would be quite an invasion of privacy.
Newspaper reporters have stories and background information leaked to them all the time. If it is too controversial, not pertinent, or has no supporting sources -- you just don't use it! I can assure you that any reporter worth her salt has a thousand stories and supporting details stored in her head and in her notes. But if you haven't printed it, where's the crime?
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