Electronista's account actually adds words to the anonymous official's comments: "FCC official: no way AT&T T-Mobile deal will go unaltered," according to the headline. The story, by "Electronista staff," then attributes to the official statements that were never made in the Journal story: "An anonymous FCC official on Wednesday night said that the proposed AT&T buyout of T-Mobile would very likely go through major changes if it were to be approved at all. He ... was confident FCC chair Julius Genachowski would either require conditions or ban the deal." The story continues: "The WSJ didn't learn which of the two was the more likely but was told a greenlight was a virtual impossibility."

VentureBeat's MobileBeat blog doesn't go that far. "" reads the headline, and then leads off with, "AT&T's $39 billion deal to purchase T-Mobile won't be entirely smooth sailing for the carrier -- not that we expected any less."

TUAW, the unofficial Weblog, is still more circumspect. Its headline is one of the few to add an additional layer of critical distance, referring to the original story: "." "So, not exactly a vote of confidence from the FCC so far. Still, that's far from an official statement ..." according to TUAW.

And that comment may be the perfect summary of what happens when an official of some kind speaks both unofficially and anonymously.

John Cox covers wireless networking and mobile computing for Network World.