He's standing by his source when he's talking about it all today and the league has been known to call things false and inaccurate before that actually ended up being found out to be true further down the road, so I wouldn't say that his source was unreliable. It's far too early to make that kind of assumption one way or the other as there is still plenty to fall into place regarding this bond issue.
I think his biggest mistake was using the word "failed", which implied that it had been tried and not succeeded. If, as the buzz is suggesting, the bonds weren't able to be underwritten and as such would be DOA on the public market, he would be right in his assessment of the situation, just wrong in his choice of words. He categorized his statement and also suggested that there are still options for the CoG to figure out the money situation that could possibly pass muster with the GWI, so I don't think there's any sort of malice or deception in what he's saying either.
It's far too early for either side to be claiming victory as of yet, but it's looking a little bit bleaker with every day that passes with the deal still unsigned. If it ultimately proves to be true that the bonds can't fly though, there doesn't seem to be much else that the CoG would be able to do at this point with the NHL nipping at their heels to get this mess finished once and for all.