I heard them saying there was no evidence to support the allegations. I heard them say no one who was talking about the rumor/allegation was willing to own it. And I heard them say "if you've got evidence, send it to me" - which I took to essentially be "put up or shut up" as you say.

While listening, I didn't take any of those things as them digging for dirt and trying to spread the rumor further. Some people have characterized it as "they want people to send in evidence!". I didn't hear it that way. I heard them say "If you've got evidence, send it to me" as being along the lines of put up or shut up. I heard it as them addressing it to put it to rest. Perhaps from a Utah perspective - so less forceful that I might like as a BYU fan. But nothing they said told me they were trying to keep the rumor alive.

There was one brief comment referring to past rumors involving Lohner - where he said something and added "at least not publicly" - which I admit to giving them the benefit of the doubt on. But that was the one piece of the conversation that hit me wrong. But speaking strictly of Chandler - I didn't hear them saying anything to give fuel to the rumors.

If they wanted to fuel the rumors, they would've take the Trump approach. "I've heard X. I don't know, I haven't seen it so I can't say, but that's what people are saying..." They didn't do that. They said there's no evidence and, from my perspective, dared people to try and find some. Because there isn't any.

I've said multiple times in this thread that I believe McCombs was much more forceful in his defense of Chandler and was a 1000X better response.

But that doesn't mean that the Checketts interview was an attempt to fuel allegations. I've called out Checketts a number of times for his bad takes on BYU, the honor code, etc. I've got no problem calling him out when he deserves it. I just don't think this is an example of that.