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Personally, I find that there is good and bad gossip. Gossip is good if it contributes to overall understanding of a person (usually outside of work/business settings, if you ask me)... sometimes difficult individuals don't like to open up, but if someone else knows a different side of them, it helps me understand and get along with that person much better. If someone tells me something that they directly ask me to not tell anyone else, however, I will respect that wish and not tell anyone.
Gossip is bad if it contributes to everyone harping on the individual in question and if it destroys a person's reputation in any way. I think sharing information is a lot different than purposeful slander. As an anthropologist, I know there has been some research connecting gossip to the way apes used to socialize... that is, by picking bugs out of each other's fur. Gossip is our modern human way of "grooming," in that sense.
And as for the crew team analogy... well, that was dumb. I don't know that anthropologist or his work, but I spent 4 years rowing and there was never that kind of gossip about slackers. Of course, our crew team was evangelical Christian (university) and were very purposeful about having a positive, healthy environment, so gossip was looked down on. We had some very difficult individuals but we dealt with them as a group, and not by gossiping.
So I think the UWisc example is not helpful to the conversation, since it only shows the character of that particular crew team and the kind of leadership and integrity they have (in my opinion).
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And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran
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