They're not the only ones to pull shit, they're just bad at it...
Like, they picked something he hates and never goes to, and made a big thing about him going. It makes sense now that it was never going to happen and they were just drawing as many eyes as possible.
I saw Sports Center for the first time in like a decade last weekend, they were covering Wrestlemania as if it was an actual competition. Even when one of the "top 10" was someone openly cheating, and then they did an interview about how much work it took.
Like, the weirdest part was it felt like modern "political analysis" where everyone just pretends it's not rigged and the current "champ" is a blatant cheat.