I am not sure what you mean by the headline is inaccurate. It would be more clear if it said, "Google penalizes an original content site because of scrapers", but the meaning is the same. You seem to agree that an original content site can get penalized if Google thinks the scrapers are the original source of the content.
I personally don't see what is news about this. It has been known for a long time that newer or less frequently updated sites can get beaten by scrapers, though it usually resolves itself later unless the scraper is a decently reputable source like the Huffington Post.
He was denied access to adwords due to a mistaken impression that he's a scraper. He did not lose search traffic due to that.
The headline conflates the two things, so is inaccurate.
I've never seen an actual instance of a site with original content being penalized because it is getting scraped (though it is theoretically possible.) Our systems for this are robust and quite conservative. When a scraper outranks the original site it's because we weren't aggressive enough in demoting the scraper, or don't have enough data about it, not because the original was penalized.
...and how is being denied access to AdWords over mistaken identity not penalization? If you get thrown into jail because of mistaken identity, that doesn't make the situation any fairer or just for you. You're still being punished.
I personally don't see what is news about this. It has been known for a long time that newer or less frequently updated sites can get beaten by scrapers, though it usually resolves itself later unless the scraper is a decently reputable source like the Huffington Post.