"Did you hear about that wild quote that the president of Chick-fil-A didn’t say?"

Interesting reporting coming from Terry Mattingly at Get Religion:

So, did you hear about that wild quote that the president of Chick-fil-A didn’t say the other day?

...

Now, one would assume — after reading a reference to the “comments of company President Dan Cathy about gay marriage” — that this interview from theBiblical Recorder in North Carolina (which was circulated by Baptist Press) actually included direct quotes from Cathy in which he talks about, well, gay marriage.

In this case, one cannot assume that.

While the story contains tons of material defending traditional Christian teachings on sexuality, the controversial entrepreneur never talks about gay rights or gay marriage. Why? Because he wasn’t asked about those issues in the interview.

...

It would have been so easy for the mainstream press to have reported Cathy’s remarks accurately and, then, to have accurately reported the comments of those who were more than happy to criticize the Chick-fil-A leader’s conservative views on marriage.

That equation is par for the journalistic course. But is it fair game to actually state, as fact, that the man said things that he didn’t say?

There's more with relevant excerpts and quotes.

When it's an agenda being propagated, anything is fair game Terry.

Anything.