I.....don't really see how his response is scummy?
I mean, "I had a scoop and I divulged a secret to drive traffic my way" is pretty much what every media outlet is trying to do constantly.
Sure, there's a difference between "Jon Kent is [whatever, I wouldn't know, gay? trans? I don't follow this kind of news)" and "Mark Zuckerberg has been harvesting organs to fuel the Facebook servers!" or "this cop killed an innocent and was protected by this corrupt judge", but within the context... If someoen who isn't affiliated and isn't under NDA somehow got a scoop on your story, sucks to be you?
I don't particularly like it or anything, but I'm not really seeing how what he did or said there is so wrong?