Inside gov't domestic spying op

Here is an article about the AT&T part of the domestic spying operation conducted, I mean "allegedly" conducted, by the US government, as told by an AT&T tech.


What I don't get is why the government doesn't just own up. The cat is out of the bag, and by dragging this out it actually causes more damage than saying "Yes, we screwed up" and firing the person that made the bad call.