We'd be saying that because she'd be right. That's the point. If she vetted all this stuff properly, she'd not get the heat. You don't get to remove yourself from responsibility just because "you are excited" or whatever especially when it's part of your job as a journalist. You are right about the Kotaku part, but she's still suspect as hell so I wouldn't begrudge anyone's immediate response being untrusting.
She's not 'suspect'. She just received information that was out of date, or only partially complete, and told everyone about it without being 100% sure it was correct, when a more experienced leaker would have sat on it. I mean, Emily Rodgers knew about ARMS but didn't say anything before the announcement as she wasn't 100% on it.
And then look at Eurogamer- a big site who are very trustworthy, were part of the initial rock solid Switch leaks, but they got it wrong on the Switch version of Pokemon Sun and Moon, possibly because plans change, possibly because they had a certain amount of information and made some assumptions.
Getting leaks wrong can happen to absolutely anyone,
especially if you leak a lot of information.
Even for video games journalism, this is a hilariously low bar of professionalism.
Did you read her twitter before she got the Kotaku job? She certainly was not very professional in terms of her social media presence. It's not a criticism, she can say whatever she likes online. But she was very very candid in everything she wrote, and would share a whole lot of personal information. She's just young and she's toned it down since getting the Kotaku job anyway.
But saying she's 'suspect' implies that you think she was lying (as I'm not sure what else would be 'suspect' about sharing rumours she'd heard?). I really don't think we should make any unfounded allegations about her just making up leaks.