The New York Times issued a big mea culpa, and returned a Peabody award and a citation as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize after retracting the core of its hit podcast series Caliphate.
Sounds like the definitely could have handled this better.
I do remember taking their reporting with a massive grain of salt as there were caveats in the story which indicated there was some sketchiness on the part of their subject and whether or not he was there or not or did the things he claimed. I took the whole thing more as a narrative with some entertainment rather than hard-hitting journalism.
