Google: Unlinked Citations Usually Do Not Help With Search Rankings

Google's John Mueller was asked if "unlinked brand citations can help in defining trust of a website / brand?" In short, when someone says the Wall Street Journal said X, but does not link to the Wall Street Journal (see what I did there WSJ, who rarely links to those it cites), is Google able to pick up on that and assign some credit to the WSJ even though there is no link.