And what would be the results of not denying it? Political suicide? Why would he not feel like he was forces to deny it? If the reporter asked you if you had stopped beating your wife, what would be your response? Would it feel forced?
Of course Thompson should have responded to it, and he did. I did not suggest otherwise. I was pointing out the article writer’s furtherance of the damage and inaccuracy by her choice of words. If the writer wished to convey the facts without inserting a personal dig, she could have done so. The English language is rich with options, and presumably a CNN reporter has command of them. Even the word “reports” was charged with innuendo. A more accurate reporter without an agenda would have referred specified “an unsourced rumor on a blog.”