Why no naval source is reliable by reputation alone

Which sources of naval information are most overrated?

No source is uniformly good or bad; evaluate how each work was prepared and used, and be alert even to errors from prestigious institutions.

A public blacklist of authors or sources would obscure the larger point. The US Department of Defense website has carried recurring sloppy historical errors, while any source can be useful or terrible depending on how it was prepared and used. Even authors who are usually valuable can fill gaps weakly in particular books. Claims and evidence deserve assessment on their own terms rather than inherited trust from an institution or a name.