Matt Taibbi was Rolling Stone's (your citation) most influential and rigorous journalist, he documented Wall Street and financial crimes, Goldman Sachs in particular. When holes appeared in Rolling Stone's other stories over the years, his held up.
If a source reaching out to and sharing documents and hearsay with a reporter is grounds for dismissing a story - because of imagined personal/ideological/PR alignment - then you would be dismissing 95% of the "Democracy Dies In Darkness" reporting by the Washington Post and New York Times.
If a source reaching out to and sharing documents and hearsay with a reporter is grounds for dismissing a story - because of imagined personal/ideological/PR alignment - then you would be dismissing 95% of the "Democracy Dies In Darkness" reporting by the Washington Post and New York Times.