At the New York Times, the line between what you are allowed to pull out of your ass and what needs to be either qualified or sourced has very little to do with trying to tell the truth.
One thing that always needs a source is a number. Does the number cast any light on the subject? Who cares?:
Of course, most Americans don’t think of their government as particularly successful. Only 19 percent say they trust the government to do the right thing most of the time, according to Gallup.
Ok, so let's make sense of that number... by making something up:
Some of this mistrust reflects a healthy skepticism that Americans have always had toward centralized authority. And the disappointing economic growth of recent decades has made Americans less enamored of nearly every national institution. But much of the mistrust really does reflect the federal government’s frequent failures – and progressives in particular will need to grapple with these failures if they want to persuade Americans to support an active government.
Meanwhile, over in Business Day they can divine the emotions of individual people by looking at bond prices, no citation necessary:
Rich valuations and extreme bullishness may look like signs of euphoria, but other evidence suggests that investors are more bored than thrilled. Trading volumes in American stocks and some bonds, notably Treasury instruments, are close to their lowest levels in at least five years.
And then, the ever popular "scientists say" on climate change:
Because burning coal is the largest source of the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists blame for trapping heat in the atmosphere and dangerously warming the planet, the rule is expected to have a powerful environmental impact. It comes on top of a regulation Mr. Obama issued in his first term that sharply increased the required fuel economy of vehicles, the second-largest source of carbon pollution in the United States.