What does et all mean?

Now all the scientists are poo-poo-ing the idea that the transmission was from intelligent, as opposed to naturally occurring / background, sources.

• Is this the result of an incompetent journalist? I could believe that. In fact, I'd already noted he wasn't too talented in my own comments to my previous post.
• Is this just the result of scientists being afraid of being labeled as a lunatic for being the first on record to say something was ET? Could be. Think about it, if that were your field, you'd be quite conscious about public opinion - what would that do to your reputation if you were wrong? Will you ever work for NASA again if your private comments about aliens were made public? There's some strong social pressures involved.
  
• Is this signs of a cover up? Probably not, or at least not from The Big Conspiracy (copyright pending). The two points above are far more likely to explain it.
• That doesn't mean I can say 100% it's not something more sinister, but my bet is on low journalistic standards, coupled with layman's misunderstanding of implications, compounded by fear of rejection and ostracism on the part of the scientific community. Somebody jumped the gun a little, and now everyone is quick to point fingers. The message is, there's still a modest chance that it's actually a transmission from another species, but no one with credentials wants to go on record saying that that's their opinion.

Original article. Revised article. A commentary article about both. My hopes and fears.