Not sure why people don't understand this.

If you are influential enough but not necessarily on the top tier of folks, people will pass you information to pass it along to the masses and get a reaction. They can't do it publicly, so they use internal conduits to gauge the reaction.

You may get passed false information. You may get passed legit information. You won't always be right or know which is which, but it's not your job necessarily to know what's real and what's false. Just to pass it along and let the fans reactions fall where they may so the higher ups can see the fan reaction.

That's not a hard concept to understand honestly. But people like to rail on others in the know when they are wrong to make up for themselves not having any information to bring to the table. It's tough for people with no information to be around people that are exposed to information. Makes them feel inferior. Some can't handle it.