I totally agree with your reading of the tone and I was kind of floored by it. To me, it seems that there must have been a tempest about it that I (we) missed.

I totally agree with your reading of the tone and I was kind of floored by it. To me, it seems that there must have been a tempest about it that I (we) missed. What I mean is that it's extremely reactive, accusatory, and defensive, but in response to something that we aren't seeing. It can make sense if someone was running a huge news story about it, that we're just not in the audience for.