As an academic, that is exactly what the kind of noncommittal, don’t burn your bridges with colleagues and funding bodies thing that I would say about even clearly flawed research if I were put on the spot by a popular-press publication. In fact, if you know you can rebut flawed research in time, you might want to assist in hyping it first so that your rebuttal will then make a bigger splash and benefit your personal brand.

It's also something you could say if you forgot to read the assignment and the professor called on you.

"It makes some profound points, yes. What if? BUT what if not?"

I read it as "I recognize some of the names and the abstract doesn't sound like complete nonsense".

That guy should start a PR firm

This sounds like something George Costanza would say