No, don't cut them a break at all. All new claims need to be investigated thoroughly, and if a hoax the reputations of the scientists need to be trashed forever. The guy who supposedly found Nebraska Man has a very poor reputation in science history, and that wasn't even so much a hoax as poor science and wishful thinking.
‘Xu Xing is one of the scientists who originally examined Archaeoraptor. As we go to press, researchers in the U.S. report that CT scans of the fossil seem to confirm the observations cited in his letter. Results of the Society-funded examination of Archaeoraptor and details of new techniques that revealed anomalies in the fossil’s reconstruction will be published as soon as the studies are completed.’ - Response to Xu Xing, National Geographic 197(3), March 2000
The ‘observations cited’ were Xu Xing’s admission that the Archaeoraptor was a composite hoax. This was determined after National Geographic, and many other publications, hailed this as a genuine fossil before the examinations of it had been completed. Xu Xing was part of the National Geographic team working on this fossil, but apparently hadn’t examined it before publication.
Given the history here, it makes me wonder how thoroughly this fossil has been ‘vetted’ before they rushed to press.