>he wasn't the reporter. He literally passed along a tip.

So, that means he was the reporter. Reporters report tips. If he wasn't busy, he would have written the story too. That's what they were asking him to do.

>he didn't push to publish (and in fact explicitly tossed that decision to editors)

Giving them a tip that he knew or should have known didn't meet AP reporting standards and then not telling them not to publish based on that.

>he literally said "hey heard this from a guy, who another guy we know trusts

He didn't. If he did, they would have said "oh, this is wrong, go back and do it the right way". He took a tip up the chain, written in an unclear way, that he should have known didn't meet reporting standards, and didn't make clear that it didn't meet reporting standards, even when asked if it should be reported.

>Yet you keep pointing to implied smears from the AP against the guy they just scapegoated, and ignore actual screenshots of the conversation in question

No, I'm pointing out what's going on in the conversation and then also pointing out that the AP said this wasn't an isolated incident.