In the cutting above, all that happens is that a character expresses an opinion; since it is only an opinion it makes no difference who's the opinion is.
In your second example, it is either an opinion (that of the author of the scrap) or a peice of anecdotal evidence (derived from the factual event).
Now, neither an opinion nor an anecdote feature highly in the big tree of proof - but an anecdote is surely above an opinion.