The page title was "Japanese kill 440 minke whales." This is factually incorrect but, worse yet, it goes on to discuss the position of the International Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee by saying, "The IWC's Scientific Committee has said that (Japan's) research whaling does not provide any information that is needed for management of whaling." This is a statement, provided by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF,) which has been taken completely out of context. The actual statement by the Scientific Committee expressed the fact that management could legally be done without this kind of in-depth research but it would be very substandard. In fact, at the 1997 IWC meeting, the Scientific Committee gave the Japanese research program high praise for its unique contributions to knowledge of minke whales in the Antarctic. 

This is not the first time misleading material has been presented by the WWF, according to Lapointe. In May of 1997, WWF, together with Greenpeace, the Humane Society of the United States, and International Fund for Animal Welfare, presented a full page ad in a number of leading newspapers accusing Japan of killing whales "in violation of an international treaty."  This is absolutely inaccurate Michael Canny, Chairman of IWC, during a briefing session with NGOs, in St-John, Antigua, 5 February 1998 said, "You have to understand that everything that Japan and Norway are doing under IWC, is perfectly legal."  Lapointe noted that "several requests, made to WWF asking for a clarification of the meaning of their advertisement, remained unanswered." 

Also found on CNN's Earth Story Page is Cassandra Phillips, WWF's coordinator for Whales and the Antarctic, saying, "...and yet Japan persists in defying world opinion." In fact, the IWC treaty requires IWC decisions to be made on the basis of science and public opinion is not relevant in that context. However Lapointe noted that a recent survey of public opinion in leading anti-whaling nations reveals that a majority of the public actually supports resumption of the harvest of minke whales for food In the U.S there was a 71% positive response. This makes most of the points in the recent CNN interactive "news" page incorrect. Lapointe calls this, "unacceptable," and called upon all media to carefully fact check information coming from vested interest groups instead of simply accepting their version of it. 

This is also not the first time IWMC World Conservation Trust has found CNN being dragged into problems by WWF. In April of 1996, IWMC forced the withdrawal of WWF advertising on CNN because of the perception of anti-Asian racism as well as inaccurate scientific content.