>There are parts in the snopes article that are concerning to me. The fact that he is not being punished, well, that speaks for itself. Maybe it is just my ex-military time coloring my view, but it smacks of a coverup, even a small one.

Smacks of a deliberate dance. This guy is not even the fall guy, he is the channel to get the story out, knowing full well that the retraction never reaches more than a single-digit percentage of the audience who got the false news. Then just say "oops" and pretend that no accident happened. Well, it wasn't accidental.