San Francisco
December 3, 2007

Bedeviled as usual by what I read at the San Francisco Chronicle's web portal, SFGate-- I once again noticed something curious when I returned to an article I had read this morning-- which this evening has become altered.

In an AP article I read this morning, "Chavez: Plan May Have Been Too Ambitious" with a Frank Bajak byline-- I was struck by the following report, quote:


What an oafish statement, I thought, knowing full well that Burns spoke in a country that has been firmly in the grip of Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Lee Hsien Loong since 1963! (A country  which John Connally, after completing a world trip, described to Richard Nixon as the “best run country in the world.")

Returning to the article this evening, I was surprised to see that tidbit expunged. (Singapore, Burns, and his statement, were no longer mentioned.)

Why? I wonder.  Is SFGate economizing on hard-drive space? 

Is it customary for readers to return to a history-archived page at SFGate to be fed a different article than the one first encountered?  To what extent will we ever know that what we are reading cannot be altered to present us with a different "reality"?  Just wondering-- I can picture a fellow in the Ministry of Truth-- changing names and dates, turning fiction into facts and facts into fictions.  Creepy?  Yes! 

Just as easily, I can imagine an overworked editor in a demoralized and understaffed department who probably cannot find Singapore or Venezuela on a map!

One can still find elsewhere the information that was earlier reported under the headline "Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote,"  with the original section still reported (as I did at Google news). 

Changing subjects a bit, did the Chronicle or SFGate ever report about  a leaked memo to CIA Director General Michael Hayden that described a covert plan, “Operation Pliers,” outlining a U.S. plan to interfere with the now completed Venezuelan referendum?  Can someone inform me?  I haven't seen that reported in the Chronicle. 

And meanwhile, I note, at its entry site SFGate this evening headlines a story about intelligence reports that conclude "Iran's nuclear weapons development program has been halted since the fall of 2003" thusly:


When one reads the Associated Press article by Pamela Hess (under a more succinct headline, "US: Iran Halted Weapons Program in 2003"), one learns that Iran is enriching uranium for "civilian nuclear reactors that produce electricity."

Is it my imagination, or is the portal SFGate headline being a tad... tendentious?   

[BTW, at 7:26 this morning I commented on the original version of  Frank Bajak's story about Chavez, under my usual rubric, alabamarasta. I was pleased to see that it, unlike Burns' statement was not (yet to my knowledge) expunged.]