"They took social media gossip that is damaging to a kids reputation and aired it while making no attempt first to check into it."

Wrong.

They took social media gossip that is damaging to a kid's reputation, looked into it, and then told everyone that there is no evidence that the media gossip is true.

Why is it so hard to acknowledge that saying there's no evidence to support the gossip/rumors/allegations is essentially defending the kid's reputation? As much as they would've loved to announce to the world that BYU and the kid did wrong (like with Nick Emery or Sockgate) they DIDN'T. They said there's no evidence of wrongdoing.

How is saying there's no evidence of wrongdoing fueling the rumors? When's the last time someone spread rumors further by saying the rumor isn't true?