The piece was co-published with Rolling Stone magazine — they fact-checked it and published it in print; we posted it online. In the days after running “Deadly Immunity,” we amended the story with five corrections (which can still be found logged here) that went far in undermining Kennedy’s exposé. At the time, we felt that correcting the piece — and keeping it on the site in the spirit of transparency — was the best way to operate. But subsequent critics, including most recently, Seth Mnookin in his book “The Panic Virus,” further eroded any faith we had in the story’s value. We’ve grown to believe the best reader service is to delete the piece entirely.
Personally, I prefer keeping the story alive on the site with appropriate corrections, as Salon had initially done. It truly was an explosive story, and the fact that it was published in the first place is as much a part of the historical record of media on the web as is the now allegedly debunked claims (I know nothing about autism and vaccines, personally) editors purport to be fixing with this latest move. But that’s only half the media story. The rest of the story is that Salon is making this correction a big deal — working hard to make this a big story with front-page placement today. Well on that front, Salon. Even if the nuclear option is a bridge too far.