You didn’t “merely point it out”, you described it as “hilarious”. This implies that you view the disclosure as some sort of evidence of impropriety, as if you discovered what game they were truly playing or something.

As others have told you, this is standard practice for short sellers, and the financial industry as a whole.

What would you rather them do? Simply claim that GE is a fraud without having any stake in GE, long or short? Don’t you lend their claim more weight given that they’ve taken a financial position based on their belief? I would think that would be a more rational view.