Exactly. The process carried out by Mike and Jason was digging for corroborating sources for a news report. While that might be held to a fairly high standard it is not enough from a liability viewpoint to base hire and fire decisions upon. For liability reasons I would assume it would be common sense to use a background checking service as opposed to DIY dirt-digging.
We're not talking about hiring and firing, we're talking about giving the community a heads-up rather than letting The Register be the one to break the story.
The foundation seems to have a great deal of difficulty realising that they can say something without saying everything. We know there are legal reasons for not telling us everything, but that doesn't mean you can't tell us that there is something you're not telling us.