media stich-up avoided?

An unusual occurrence this morning. I get a call from a producer with ITV. They're running a programme on skin cancer, and one of their contributors reported that he had come to our practice 5 years ago, where we apparently failed to refer him for his cancer. Would I like a right of reply? I said I thought I might decline that offer, though I appreciated being informed. I got their promise our practice would not be named, and left it at that. I'm not absolutely certain the story is true in every detail. I know patients do not always get their stories right, for a variety of reasons.
Gore Vidal once said, "never pass up the opportunity, either to have sex, or appear on television", but I think I made the right decision this time, his advice notwithstanding.

COMMENT

The Guardian today is full of Wikileak's revelations about how the war in Afghanistan is really waged by the Americans. There are few surprises. The Afghan people have been invaded many times over their turbulent history.(even the Brits had their go in the 19th century and that all ended in tears) They don't like it, and become increasingly ingenious in their methods of expelling the invader. They've found a way round the enemy's superior fire-power, and they'll soon find a way round that most pernicious of modern war machines, the unmanned drone. Inevitably the invaders will leave in shame and humiliation because they, unlike their opponents, lack the spirit for a real fight.