I was around when that encounter happened. I still recall my feelings when I read it.

I don't recall feeling Knuth was framed.

Although McIlroy's solution didn't really address the question Knuth was asked, it was cute and demonstrated the power of this newfangled thing called "Unix Philosophy", which at the time needed some oxygen. However the words McIlroy accompanied it with were simply unnecessary, almost childish. I recall cringing when I read them.

I do remember wondering if Bentley had done the right thing in publishing McIlroy's raw comments, but decided the main attraction of his column was a refreshing honesty. He presented his pearls without any the usual breathless hype or artificial conflict a journalist might add to spice up interest. Having set up this experiment, it would not have been "Programming Pearls" if he didn't report exactly what happened, as it happened.

Bentely's style wasn't to constrain or direct for a particular outcome he wanted. That meant McIlroy had lots of rope and McIlroy used it to hang himself, that was McIlroy's problem.