Recently, a co-worker who is a perpetual morning tea drinker, showed up to the office with a cup of coffee to drink - quite out of character for her since she has a relatively healthy lifestyle and consciously shuns excessive amounts of caffeine. Her reason for the switch? She had read an article declaring coffee to be a good source of antioxidants. Now, I'm into healthy living myself, but I'm also a media sceptic, so I wasn't going to swallow this story whole.
After a little digging, I found the news she was referring to. It turns out that this 'news' started it's life as a press release, ended up being picked up by reporters who regurgitated into one of those human interest filler stories easily digested by newspaper readers (and tea drinkers in this case) everywhere.
Everyone I knew seemed to have read the story and bought into the idea that all that coffee they drink is not only good for them, but that they should leave their favourite morning beverage for it. The truth is that the study, funded by a industry advocates the "National Coffee Association", doesn't really say that coffee has a lot of antioxidants. What the research states is that out of all the things that Americans eat and drink, coffee is where they get the most antioxidants from.
This does NOT mean coffee has a lot of antioxidants - it simply means that, to quote the professor who conducted the study: "Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source. Nothing else comes close."
The real story should have probably read "Americans don't eat enough fruits and vegetables", but this is not sensational enough, nor does it aid the cause of the National Coffee Association. I imagine that there is a group of PR execs somewhere patting themselves on the back for such a shrewd media coup.