I understand that the press has a right to quote people like this, and as far as it goes, there is nothing wrong with it. However, in Iraq there has been a long and colorful history of "witnesses" turning in completely false statements, either deliberately (this is a common tactic for the insurgents), or innocently simply passing on rumors or al Jazeera bullshit. That one incident where some people were killed in a jeep, and it was incorrectly reported that massive abuse of the bodies had taken place, is the first one that comes to mind. There are many others.

If I was a reporter and some random person in Iraq approached me to tell me the sun was up, I'd check my watch and look at the sky. A slightly higher threshold of what should be printed should be used in some cases. After all, one would think the objective of the newsman is to tell what actually happened, not what random people are saying, unless the story is about how rumors are started.

Someone on the Space Board who quoted an anomalist at some length about big red fire hydrants being found on Mars would probably be jeered, and the explanation, "well, the anomalist said it and I'm quoting him accurately" would probably not cut much ice with the other posters.