We told you in late October about an example of horrible science reporting at USA TODAY, in which the paper repeated the flawed canard that more than a half-million babies are supposedly born each year in the U.S. at risk from mercury poisoning. Although the source of this fable is a single Environmental Protection Agency employee who wasn’t speaking for her employer when she opened Pandora’s tuna can, McPaper made the allegation the centerpiece of an alarmist feature about the “dangers” of eating too much fish.
Now a Washington, DC watchdog called the Business & Media Institute is re-chronicling the episode, along with new accusations that a USA TODAY “correction” on the issue was just as incorrect as the original story. The bottom line? Eat fish. Lots of it. And USA TODAY science articles make good wrapping paper.
