One of the troubling issues of internet news publication is the transient nature of the witten text.  Take a look at this article in the Financial Times.

Barack Obama vowed to consult “across the political spectrum” as he began a search on Friday for his first Supreme Court nominee.

The pledge came after Justice David Souter announced plans to step down. Mr Souter was appointed by George Bush, the Republican president, in 1990 but went on to become one of the most liberal members of the nine-strong panel. The judge said he would retire when the court breaks for the summer next month

Aside from being written as if copied from a White House Press Release (does anyone actually think that Obama will give any consideration whatsoever to the views 46% who voted against him?), there is a curious editorial problem with this article.

Take a look at the print edition of this story (attached).  The headline has it that a “Conservative” is “Set to step down in June”.  I read the article, then wondered who else was going to step down, as except for dressing like one,  Souter is no one’s conservative in a political sense.  However when reading the article on-line, the reference to Conservative was disappeared, leaving only the more accurate “went on to become one of the most liberal members of the nine-strong panel” enshrined for all time on the internet version of the FT.

No correction, no comment, just an honest mistake I am sure.  One wonders if there is a shortage of pixels at the FT keeping them from matching the headlines to the story.