The CBC is really having field day with the Toronto Star’s misstep late last week. Under a huge headline “A wonder drug’s dark side” the Star’s investigative team took issue with the Gardasil vaccine shown to prevent HPV. Citing anecdotal evidence it seems the reporters either ignored or played down the significant scientific evidence supporting the vaccines. The Star’s Editor-in-Chief Michael Cooke has since issued a mea culpa saying his paper “had failed its readers.”

It’s not like this is the first time that the media have run fast and lose with the facts. I am completely wearied by the number of times I have seen misinformation reported and then repeated about our client Lockheed Martin and the F-35 stealth fighter. Yet again last week I saw a story about the single engine that failed to acknowledge that redundancy was never the reason for a second engine on an aircraft. (I refer to the argument that on two-engine aircraft, if one engine fails, the other can keep the aircraft airborne.) In fact, the only reason an aircraft was designed with two engines was for power and thrust. The new engines can deliver more power obviating the need for the second engine. But the red herring just keeps swimming.

So what’s with the CBCs vendetta with the Star this week. ‘Course it could be that the issue in this case is a life and death consideration and the error of fact is related to a major health issue. But is it possible that the CBC is rather delighted to see that The Star has stepped in doo doo given the exposé that led to the CBCs own day(s) in the headlines? Take that tit for tat;)