He didn't lie for a 'scoop'. He could never have a scoop based on that, anyway.
It would take him being much dumber than he actually is to believe it would work in any way save the hate he gathered for himself.
And he could simply have said, at any given moment, that his anonymous source lied to him. To the end, even today, he swears that was not the case and that the game was ready.
And that is problably the worst (and, from a different perspective, best) part of it.