When you look up statistics for the average departure delay, the 6-hour delay won't be included because there was no departure. Is that what you mean by "fudging"? This is done in accordance with federal law, so whatever you call it it is still legal.

Statistics on airline web sites can be fudged because they can be different from the official numbers reported to the government. That's why you go to the government web site for the real numbers.

For, example: The government counts all cancellations within 7 days of the scheduled flight and that is the data you see. However, the airlines don't like to count flights "pre-cancelled" within a few days before the flight because the passengers may have reached their destinations on different flights. So the airline can claim fewer cancellations by ignoring pre-cancellations.

Official data:
http://www.bts.gov/programs/airline_...me_statistics/