Unattributed hearsay is not useful in any rational debate. It is effectively just veiled ad hominem.

I'm not sure it matters if it's attributed or not. Very few people are capable of setting their biases aside, so even intimate hearsay is mostly just going to be driven by subjective opinions about the person in question.

I mean I think we've most all seen literally the exact same thing at any reasonably large institution.

If people are scared to speak out anonymous reporting is all you'll get