I fail to see how using other articles for a source is a problem,
One of the sources is someone’s unsubstantiated opinion. Its fine for someone to write an opinion piece, but the techdirt article’s author is citing the opinion piece as fact. Other sources completely contradict the techdirt author’s statements where techdirt cites the other source as where that wrong statement came from. After checking 3 sources and finding problems with all three I gave up. The article and the author have zero credibility.
You’re welcome to keep reading that author’s work, just don’t make the same mistake the author makes and passing the article off as credible.