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It's impossible to prove that these allegations were false. So there's no reputation to lose.

The only ways i can think of to prove innocence (in general) are a) an alibi b) finding who actually did it.

Both of these don't work here, you can't have an alibi for the whole company for 10 years, obviously. You can't find out who did "it" because there's no concrete example. At the very best you can prove that others did it too.

If any if the downvoters could elaborate why I'm wrong I'd appreciate that. I really don't know.

I wouldn't put too much weight into his reputation. John Broder (of NYT) also had a good reputation for journalistic integrity until he posted a falsified[1] review piece of a Tesla.

[1]http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive

If the information turns out to be false then the anonymous sources get blamed, not the author.