That's what Life did. It carefully ignored each of these studies. Instead it simply regaled its readers with touching anecdotes about children with birth defects whose parents had become convinced by other stories like Life 's that being endowed with a perfect baby is a God-given right which was cruelly taken from them because of their service in the Gulf. This is particularly true of medical problems and health issues because these are things about which the people worry the most. That's doubly true when children are involved.
People tend to throw all skepticism out of the window.
Members of the press corps are loath to write anything that will make them seem odd. There's a premium to be paid for doing the story that goes against the grain. And one to be gained for going with it, as the Life award shows. I think the assumption is that if there were something wrong with the story the paper wouldn't be entering it. Lately there's been a lot of hand-wringing from the media about why it seems the public hates them.