Not to rain on your worldview or anything but I must point out that one of the requirements for being in upper management that's public facing is the ability to

Not to rain on your worldview or anything but I must point out that one of the requirements for being in upper management that's public facing is the ability to say just about anything with a straight face. ("Courage" anyone?) The fact that Tim Cook came up with a good (from a PR perspective) response doesn't say anything about the actual motivation.