Hello all,
A month ago, on May 19th, the London-based news provider The
Independent ran an online story in their Health section about the
recent BMJ article showing an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis
with low frequency of breastfeeding, among other factors.
(http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7398/1068 ).

The Independent's article is only available now by paying a fee, but
the headline and lead sentence can still be viewed at
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=407490.  The
reporter apparently didn't read carefully (or at all?) and reversed
the association between breastfeeding and future RA risk.  The lead
sentence states, "Bigger babies and children who are breast-fed have
a higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis in later life,
researchers say."  Several places in the body of the article the
error was repeated, even including a statement to the effect of,
"this is surprising because of all the known benefits of
breastfeeding."

On May 21st, I wrote to the Independent's news editor (mailto:
[log in to unmask]) pointing out the error and urging a
correction ASAP.  I referenced the BMJ article's URL and quoted the
authors on the relationship between bf and RA.  When the story had
not been changed the next day, I wrote to the news editor again on
May 22nd.

The Independent has never issued a correction.  While the story is no
longer generally available without paying, the headline and erroneous
first sentence are still visible to those who browse the site.
Reading this may be just as damaging to breastfeeding promotion
efforts as reading the whole story.

I am not familiar enough with world journalism to know whether the
Independent is well-regarded or not.  I am surprised that they have
failed to correct an obvious error.  Clearly my two concise and
referenced emails to the news editor made no difference.  It's a bit
disheartening having to deal with plain falsehoods when there are so
many other things already making breastfeeding less prevalent than it
should be.  Does anyone know how to apply more effective pressure in
cases like this?

Margaret
Longmont, Colorado, USA

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