I'm sure some reporter for one of the news outlets, who knows the players in the Green collection matter well, would know this source by name.
My guess was made by "backing into" a likely candidate. Whoever told Wallace the information that Wallace took to mean that there was a possibly 1st century fragment of the gospel of Mark in the collection itself, dated by a highly esteemed critic, was mixing up all sorts of things. No professional NT critic, liberal or conservative, would be doing so unless looped.
The owner of the Green collection at least has an interest in sponsoring a museum (and that is what it is, really) that highlights the earliest forms of the NT text. He did the right thing by hiring David Trobisch, a highly regarded critic who had previously specialized in the personal review and collation of thousands of NT manuscripts while at Baylor University, as Curator of the Green collection.
Since I do not see Trobisch and Wallace as unable to talk to each other (their spheres of interest intersect to a large degree, although Trobisch would be perhaps better aware of the areas of NT criticism that were not solidly conservative), Wallace's source or sources was probably not Trobisch, although I'm sure they have talked at one or two professional conferences or seminars in the past.
On account of the confusion of facts, I do not think the source knows a lot about NT criticism in general. The part of it still sanctioned by US "Evangelical" (conservative) Christians in general is NT textual criticism), but I think he is not especially knowledgeable of Greek textual criticism either, and is learning the complexities of it as he goes.
That "learning as one goes" characteristic is pretty common among the strong willed individuals who lead relatively large organizations that I have come across in my job. Our own President DT is of this type. God bless them all for their fortitude, but I don't always agree with the way they treat people along the way, or their "you have to do it my way or no way at all" attidude.
The source may have been a "pitch man" in the sales department of the Hobby Lobby chain, and he sure must have sounded like he knew what he was saying when he conversed with Wallace. You know, HL execs visits Green collection HQ when Wallace is there, and they all hit the local steak house and talk till the wee hours. I doubt that any of these folks would have been drinking, but it seems Wallace felt he had an entertaining discussion about projects still in development at the Green collection and their historical precedents.
Unfortunately the background noise and late hour probably didn't help Wallace's, or his source(s), ability to communicate. I doubt that there was any intent to steer the narrative for financial gain, just honest miscommunication.
Now that I think about it, the source could have been Steve Green himself.
DCH
