Uhhh, it was absolutely a public rejection.
It's good that there's a double standard for MT and JW, because people were utterly ridiculous about MT in a counterproductive fashion whereas the halo around JW can only help, but man alive is there a double standard.
Those situations aren't comparable though. Stevens and Smart both issued press releases turning down Illinois. This is more comparable to Anthony Grant. The Tribune reported he turned us down last time but no one remembers that because it didn't come from him directly.