“We were wrong about this, and we want to repudiate our error” is an approach that could have earned credence and respect with ordinary people. They’ll fire up their own base with this childishness, but I think most folks (who have been following actual events all along) are going to find it bizarre and repulsive.
Only because Rush and Trump and FNC is telling the it’s bizarre and repulsive, of course. It’s all the fault of the fairness doctrine being rescinded.