I believe the ethical journalistic equivalent would be to allow the author to edit/delete content with a provided explanation for why (at the author's discretion) - with or without the original content included (also at the author's discretion).  

Even if the entirety of the resulting retraction was merely "the deleted content no longer reflects the author's views", it could signal the author's intent accurately while also maintaining the integrity of the public's perspective by reflecting that the content has indeed been changed.