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By claiming that microRNAs (miRNAs) are a “very real danger of GMOs” The Atlantic food writer Ari Levaux has shown how trashy journalism can now get corrected by the blogosphere almost in real-time. Unfortunately trashy journalism even when corrected quickly allows confusing mis-information to get wide publicity, and the public would be better served with rigorous editorial standards being in place before a story goes  to print.

First Emily Willingham asked some direct questions about why the embarrasingly bad piece was ever published.

Then Chrissie Wilcox and others got on the job:

Science Sushi
Real science. Served raw.
The Very Real Scaremongering of Ari Levaux
By Christie Wilcox | January 12, 2012 |  24
Recently, food columnist Ari Levaux wrote what can only be described as a completely unscientific article in The Atlantic claiming that microRNAs (miRNAs) are a “very real danger of GMOs.”
 I won’t go point by point through the horrendous inaccuracies in his piece, as Emily Willingham has more than hacked them to bits. But I do want to make a short comment on this idea that miRNAs are dangerous, and thus something we should worry about when it comes to what we eat….

Collide a scape caught up with a lot of the back-story, and noted the final admission of problems with the story:

UPDATE: Several hours after publishing my post, The Atlantic did exactly what I suggested they should do: acknowledge the errors in the article. Here is the revised editors note:
The Atlantic

Update 1/12: Thanks to science and biology bloggers, Christie Wilcox and Emily Willingham at the Scientific American blog network and The Biology Files, respectively, we’ve learned of the scientific errors made in Ari LeVaux’s most recent Flash in the Pan column, which is syndicated by a number of newspapers and magazine websites. This column has been expanded and updated, with LeVaux discussing specific changes in the comments. We regret the errors.