SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2019Mea Culpa: we don’t need to
contract out facts to ‘experts’
John Rentoul’s regular round-up of errors and omissions
Claims about the MMR vaccine and autism have long been debunked (Reuters)
My predecessor, Guy Keleny, used to warn our journalists about the word “expert”,
and this week we had a demonstration of the problem. In a report about the MMR
vaccine and the belief in some quarters that it causes autism, we concluded “... but
experts have found it not to be true”.Thanks to Mick O’Hare for suggesting we should just say that it isn’t true. He has an important point that
there is no need to contract out the ruling to nameless “experts”. My problem is different, which is that no