The person I was responding to said there should be a differentiation between responding in a personal capacity and responding as a mod. I'm of the belief that all of their posts are in a personal capacity only.
The post in question has an avatar/status panel saying "Senior reporter - staff member" and a sig saying "Senior reporter for MacRumors". They are
literally posting as a MacRumors reporter, not in a personal capacity.
I'm all for employees/representatives/office holders being able to have their own lives and opinions, but they should take off their official hat, first.
That said, the "offence" here is pretty petty - and it is ultimately up to Macrumors whether they feel it is inappropriate for the role, although it does seem to be a breach of the posting guidelines.
Directed at the thread in general:
As for responding to conspiracy theorists - my half penny's worth: rule one should be
don't feed the trolls - they feed on attention, good or bad. The belief that "the powers that be" are suppressing and deriding the "truth" is central to the conspiracy theory narrative and mocking them (especially from what looks like a position of authority) just validates that - as well as perpetuating the post by quoting it. You're not going to change
their mind, you're just enticing them to misquote Gandhi at you. If there
is a justification for replying it is to set the record straight for the benefit of other readers who may be tempted by the conspiracy, but that means writing a proper rebuttal - not just a "LOL". Either rebut it properly, report it (if you think it is harmful misinformation) or ignore it.
NB: just for clarity, bearing in mind ths subject matter, I am not affiliated with MacRumors.