[akiselev]

> Or maybe ... the story is true, and those mentioned found it embarrassing, so they put out denials to the press and social media that will never have to be scrutinized (say, under testimonial oath in a deposition)?

These are publicly traded companies - everything they say is scrutinized.

What's not scrutinized is internal communications and logs, which would be fair game in discovery in event of a lawsuit against a media organization, which are uniquely suited to defend those types of lawsuits.