I find it a little odd that BBC titled this "University says FBI payment reports 'inaccurate'" instead of "Carnegie Mellon University says FBI payment reports 'inaccurate'" or even just "Carnegie Mellon says FBI payment reports 'inaccurate'".
The actual headline is shorter than both of your proposed alternatives, and more informative than the shorter of the two to anyone who doesn't know what Carnegie Mellon is, which if probably a substantial share of the BBC audience. So, I'd say it's generally a better headline.
A deflect-not-deny statement.
This is sad. Those are the same Tor people smearing Pando after publishing Tor real source of funding - CIA