There are a lot of words to describe this exercise: shameful, irresponsible, misleading, inflammatory, exploitative. “Fair” and “balanced” don’t exactly leap to mind. Neither does “accurate.” The chyron alone, announcing that the restaurant denies service to same-sex couples, is patently false. As far as anyone knows, the restaurant has never done that. Ever.

It seems clear that the editorial process went something like this:

Producer: “Does anyone know of a business that might refuse to serve gay people? Any place that’s, you know, religious?”

Researcher: “Hey, I know a little pizza place about 20 miles from here that is very Christian.”

Producer: “Great! Alyssa, head over there and see what they think.”

The rest is history.

(source: Great moments in journalism: TV station fabricates a controversy, destroys local business)