I think it should be similar to how journalists are treated after they are involved in a major scandal (usually reporting something speculative as fact). Personally, I don't think there's any excuse for unreproducible results. They are worse than silence, they are lies that spread other lies.
So what happens to "the journalist" when something speculative is reported in a newspaper piece that is written by 7 people five years ago? In addition, five of the seven writers are now working different jobs in the private sector, no longer writing in any newspaper.
Case in point: Michael Riley who wrote Bloomberg's thoroughly debunked story on SuperMicro "The Big Hack", has now been promoted to manage all of the their cybersecurity coverage.