Dateline aired a special one hour program, "A Dose of Controversy," about the autism-vaccine debate. The program featured Dr. Andrew Wakefield and Paul Offit, both outspoken leaders on opposite sides of the charge that vaccines cause autism.

While the Dateline program is not available for free on NBC's website, the network did post these two videos on their site after the program aired. The first discusses recent findings in autism research and the second is an interview with Dr. Bernadette Healy of the National Institutes of Health.

Dateline did not take sides in the debate and instead went with a "fair and balanced" presentation, giving equal weight to both sides of the argument. Critics of the vaccine-autism connection are expressing disappointment that coverage was so "balanced" when the there is no demonstrated proof of any connection. They are also frustrated with NBC's refusal to be harder on their guests. Proponents of the connection between vaccines and autism are discouraged that the Dateline program did not go far enough to advance their opinion. No surprises there.

Scroll to the bottom of this page for a response (likely to the airing of this program by Dr. Geri Dawson, of Autism Speaks)

Piece from Dateline, August 30, 2009, on the state of research on Autism.

Response from the National Institutes of Health on the Autism-Vaccine debate.