I agree that they have a rapport /respect for Matt, but if they mislead him intentionally, then it could happen. If they said it is HUGE, a major, major character, part of their original core story. Then he said really, main cast? Then they said “None of the main cast are safe except Bobby. This is going to be a very big death. A series regular character is dying and will not return.” I could see him writing it up that way, and then A&E are snickering because they were being deceptive and cryptic and meant a past series regular, not a current one.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass