Philosopher Bryan Frances (Fordham) writes:

regarding the whole synthese fiasco:

one thing that philosophers should be wise enough to realize is how forgiving intelligent people are who already respect you and your work.  if the editors-in-chief had just said right off the bat 'oops.  really sorry folks.  obviously could have handled it better', much of this would have gone away immediately.  not entirely though: as there still would be important political ramifications regarding testimony in Louisiana court cases.  but even then a short disclaimer-disclaimer, or something else of that sort, could have been made available to undo or prevent some of the future damage.

think of a marriage: often the very best thing to do is just say to one's spouse 'oops, i screwed up; sorry' even when one doesn't really fully understand what was wrong with one's action.  i do this all the time, as i respect the judgment of my equally intelligent spouse!  it's an interesting case for the "epistemology of disagreement" movement!