Come on... they're all quoting the same Google response. Consumerist, AP, etc don't make stuff up. That'd be worse for them then it was for Google to go around digitally murdering folks
I'm not saying they're making anything up, I'm saying that their source may not be an official one.
Anyone in any company could make a statement; that doesn't mean it holds water. It needs to be an official statement from Google, whether from their Press office, comms director, and so on.
I do exactly this for my company; I've been watching this the entire day from Google's perspective.
Every big company has a process in place for a situation like this and they drill constantly; they don't just "wing it". And the core of any crisis plan is always the same: until an official statement is released to the general media nothing is official.