No- that is never true. A lawyer can force you to remove a post or a coprighted video off your site, but they can't forbid you from revealing what the lawyer asked you to do. This isn't Cold War Kremlin, after all.
Now maybe he doesn't want to say what the message was for fear of pissing off Apple. But a rumor site shouldn't care what Apple thinks, no?
I still think Macrumors secretly gets "scoops" from Apple, and Apple benefits from Macrumors generating buzz for them. All is fine- but free press demands transparency so we, the subscribers, trust what is being reported.
No answers to questions that should be easy to answer, simply generate more questions.
Here are the seemingly innocuous questions again. Others should feel free to add theirs. MacRumors is under no obligation to answer, but they will lose credibility in many people's eyes if they don't.
1) Who exactly called you at 3am? An Apple attorney?
2) How long was your initial post on the 6G Ipod up? Do they monitor your site constantly 24/7? It appears so, since within an hour or two, at 3am (!) they woke up an attorney to call you, no?
3) What was their conversation with you? What exactly did you do that was wrong, in their opinion? Maybe it is copyright violation to post their video, but it isn't to state what they told you.
4) What did they threaten if you didn't take down the post?
5) How was Apple even able to find your home number at 3am?
6) Has Apple contacted you before about a posting on your site and asked you to remove it? If so, did you ever say you weren't?
7) In the past 7 years (not necessarily this time), has Apple itself ever directly leaked something to you?
8) Do you think this post came from Apple, but via an intermediary so they can dig out a mole? Has that happened to you before where you rec'd a tip from somewhere which you suspected really to be coming from Apple itself?