Its live headline, as recorded September 11, read: “Live Updates: Trump says war to end “immediately” after midterms as Iran damages U.S. jets in strikes”.

Trump says. Iran damages. You can hear the difference without attending journalism school. I recommend saving the money.

For the promised end of the war, CBS gave you a speaker. For the damaged aircraft, it gave you an event.

Then, on the same page, CBS wrote: “Several U.S. fighter jets at a Jordanian military base were damaged in Iranian strikes on Wednesday, sources tell CBS News.”

There they are. The people who told CBS. A reader who stopped at the headline didn’t get to meet them, even in their permitted form as unnamed sources.

CBS described them as people with direct knowledge of the matter. It explained that they lacked authorization to speak publicly. Its standalone article kept “sources say” in the headline. The newsroom knew how to do this. It had done it elsewhere on the same story.

Anonymous sources can tell the truth. Someone who knows what happened may also know what happens to employees who talk. I don’t need CBS to print a person’s name and get them fired before I will consider their account.

I do need CBS to tell me that I am reading their account.

The details were serious. CBS’s sources said an A-10 lost a wing. CBS also reported light damage to roughly eight F-15s and said they were reportedly back in service. Those are claims about aircraft that people maintain and fly. A missing wing deserves more care than a missing suitcase. So does the sentence telling us about it.

Trump denied damage. That gives us a denial, with a name attached. It doesn’t give us an inspection.

Jordan’s military reported intercepting 18 of 20 missiles and recording no casualties. Its statement did not assess the American aircraft. We should be grateful when nobody gets hurt without asking that fact to tell us whether a plane needs repairs.

The available record here does not settle the aircraft’s condition or establish how any specific damage happened. CBS may have the damage story right. Readers still deserve to know what kind of information CBS has given them.

Most of us cannot visit an air base in Jordan to check. We read between shifts, on the bus, before someone needs dinner. We depend on reporters to preserve distinctions we cannot check ourselves.

CBS found space for “Trump says.” It could have extended the same small courtesy to the rest of us.