"The big question, of course, is why Apple is storing this information. I don’t have a definitive answer, but the best at least somewhat-informed theory I’ve heard is that consolidated.db acts as a cache for location data, and that historical data should be getting culled but isn’t, either due to a bug or, more likely, an oversight. I.e. someone wrote the code to cache location data but never wrote code to cull non-recent entries from the cache, so that a database that’s meant to serve as a cache of your recent location data is instead a persistent log of your location history. I’d wager this gets fixed in the next iOS update.”
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/04/21/andy-ihnatko-loc...
"The key question for Apple: Given that this file was widely known among iOS forensics experts back in September, why does it still contain historical (as opposed to just recent) location history today?”
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/04/21/watts-martin
"Android phones store the same type of location information, but, unlike iOS, Android’s cache only contains recent entries — which is to say Android is doing it right.”
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/04/21/android-location...
"Really good questions” [About Senator Al Frankens letter to Steve Jobs on iPhone location tracking]
That said, I cannot imagine that if they'd contacted Apple about the issue they would have gotten a useful answer without the publicity.
Bottom line though is that any sufficiently sensational story gets traffic regardless of its truth or lack of attempt to even verify the veracity of the alleged problem.
It's certainly reasonable to question their motives.