A reporter is a gatherer of news and distributor.

A "great source" is someone close to a newsworthy situation that 1-logically would have information about a newsworthy story, 2- is willing to share that information, 3- is willing to have his/her name printed.

I don't know how it gets much better than the brother of someone.

A writer would be a hack if that's all he did was grab those comments and run with it. He didn't. He reached out to additional people who didn't respond, including BYU's media relations group.

Pretty much journalism 101.

You're pissed that it's bad news. But I don't get how this is Jay Drew's fault.