Happens in all wars. Major Devereaux of Wake Island fame was asked by his interrogators if he really radioed back the defiant message “send more Japs!”. He replied why would he say anything like that? He had more than he could handle! The interrogators had to admit it was good propaganda though.
I can understand that some things get confused in the middle of a big operation and maybe things are exactly right, and then something is repeated — at that time. But, when one makes up stuff, outright, and then continues with it and doesn’t correct it — it simply leads to anything else said by that source to be *not believed* any longer. That’s the problem with not correcting things or continuing with a false story...
That was then, this is now. There was a lot more control over the media back then. These are different times, and the military has to understand that.
The bad thing is, Deveraux surrendered when his Marines were actually repelling the Japanese, because he had lost communication with his men and didn’t know what was happening. I’m certainly not accusing him of cowardice, and they would have been overwhelmed eventually, but it’s ironic.