In this case, if you call it a rumor, and it is a rumor, true or not, that's not really a case of bad journalism. However, the fact that Kotaku doesn't seem to have done anything to update anyone on the status of the rumor is relatively negligent, in my opinion.
For comparison's sake, I commented that the rumor existed on my most recent podcast. As soon as I saw something contradicting it, I went and posted a comment to let people know. We've not seen anything from Kotaku addressing this yet. The shoddy journalism is on the fact that they were so eager to quickly report an untrue rumor, but comparatively have not reported on the truth of the matter yet, in any way.