I imagine it would have it was on the evening news I think it was described as a preliminary report. I doubt if the media would have made it up they would not be smart enough to come up with that one.
There are a few things I don't get about this event, there has been talk about 'gates' which I understand, these involved airspeed and altitude which I also understood, the bit I am not sure about is how does the pilot know how high he is at the top of the loop? I would have thought you could not rely on the altimeter due to lag?
How can that manoeuver be planned over that highway? Shouldn't the lowest allowable height be 500ft?