Yeah, I remember this and no one in the media seemed to follow up until the following year....it was written off as another wannabe Cane booster poser, at least publicly....the local soFla media were caught with their collective pants down when this blew up in August 2011....if they didn't know how would you expect Golden and his people to know.
Seems like you're trying to have it both ways.
"Well yeah, there were rumors...but it wasn't about UM."
-sees that the Herald article specifically notes the rumors about UM.
"Well, yeah, ok, but none of it was confirmed until the Yahoo story, so how could Golden know?"
So in your mind, Shalala and Hocutt knew all along, even though no one in the press did--and even though Shapiro hadn't named names and laid out specifics, and everyone thought Shapiro was a wannabe.
And Shalala and Hocutt conspired to keep the truth from Golden.
Dare I ask what proof you have of this?
Seems far likelier to me that Shalala and Hocutt didn't know specifics any more than anyone else did. They had the Herald story to go on, and that was it. I doubt that Shalala and Hocutt had interviewed all the players and knew of the bennies that Shapiro was providing.
They leveled with Golden as to what they knew (which wasn't much), and he took his chances.