I wouldn’t even say that it is a case of a bigot catching a priest off-guard. It was more likely a case of a bigot simply fabricating a story.
If I say I went to the “Church of XYZ” and saw the minister slaughtering goats and then saw all of the XYZers drinking the goat blood does this somehow make it true? The irony is that it DOES become the truth if my audience WANTS TO BELIEVE that XYZers drink goat blood.
And in reality that is ALL that bigoted publications do, they tell other bigots that what they WANT TO BELIEVE is the truth.