Yep. Nuking it forever looks bad, but if they do this they can just call it an 'error'.

It's exactly the same as when leftist news runs obviously bullshit sensationalist claims that are blatantly false, then quietly admits the real story once the storm has died down and nobody is looking. The result is that even though they eventually publish the truth, the general public remains full of people who only ever saw the intial story, and still believe it.