We were taught at our Catholic grammar school that there were different kinds of lying, and that an important one was lying by omission, which has the intent to deceive. What was daubed on the bus is a classic example of that. It doesn't matter how many times he might have separately said that the figure was gross, if he did. The bus was the tabloid headline-catcher, as it was intended to be, and the word "gross" was nowhere to be seen.