All "paid to publish" sites like Cannanews have what they consider to be a get of jail free card in their disclaimers.
Some go so far as to state that the information on their site is "apocryphal" but most just say that the information may not be accurate, complete, or timely.
They put everything on the supplier of the information, in this case Aaron and his supporters and Aaron would probably throw them under the bus, after all Aaron has only talked about an LOI and it's on his website too. Although I think he went too far by putting Tommy's photo on the dudgenius website.
GL and thanks for the truthful balance.