You complain about a journalist researching a story, then in the next breath complain that journalists do not check facts.
What better place to come than PPrune to ask professionals for facts and opinion before writing an aviation story if, as a professional journalist, you want to get your facts right?
as an Engineer for a major UK carrier based at an "Outstation" I think I am well qualified to respond. Put simply there is no substantive grounds for your story. Personally I have never dispatched an aircraft with any of the type of defects you mention, unless I can legally do so
Above we have the opinions of two separate posters.
Do any of us expect a balance story or will it be just a reciting of selected opinions some good and some bad without any qualified measurement system of "acceptable risk"
As a Ppruner I don't have an opinion on this since insufficient facts have been presented by the sources. Pprune is not the place to develop a factual data base since most of what is offered are selected opinions based on only a smattering of visible facts.