Rumours of doom and gloom are often without substance and only make a situation worse. People with good intentions try to find out by asking the world at large but this only spreads the message.
If you have no other way (and I suspect most people here have got some) and need to ask in public then be sure to be quick to refute the rumour when it turns out somebody has the wrong end of the stick.
PS "I have been told by a usually reliable source" is even worse! Either these reliable sources know their stuff and you accept what they say, or they are not reliable enough to trust. Anything that strengthens an uncorroborated rumour is worse.