Yesterday, Atrios brings up an issue about fake firefighters in a Bush ad and quotes a Newsweek article:

Another less-publicized aspect of the ad flap: the use of paid actors including two playing firefighters with fire hats and uniforms in what looks like a fire station. "Where the hell did they get those guys?" cracked Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which has endorsed John Kerry, when he first saw the ads. (A union spokesman said the shots prompted jokes that the fire hats looked like the plastic hats "from a birthday party.") "There's many reasons not to use real firemen," retorted one Bush media adviser. "Mainly, its cheaper and quicker."

Atrios posted yesterday, and I just read it today. I clicked over to the Newsweek article, and the paragraph has changed:

Another, less publicized aspect of the ad flap: Everyone but the firefighters were paid actors. The firefighters posing in a firehouse was "stock" film footage of volunteer firefighters -- shot and available for purchase to the general public.

So the original Newsweek article was wrong; however, there's no note saying that the article was changed. This isn't new. White House Web Scrubbing incidents, anyone? That's not the point I wish to make.

I scrolled through the comments to the Atrios post, and no one is mentioning this change to the article. Lots of incited liberals who are too lazy to RTFA are going to perpetuate a new myth -- that George Bush used fake firefighters in an ad. Using lies doesn't help at a time when we want truth. We get angry every time a neocon makes a claim -- "Bill Clinton is a murderer" -- that gets handily refuted but isn't, ahem, killed. We shouldn't sink to the same level. We are liberals because we want to lead the world by example, not by deception.

But I'll if you want to concoct a conspiracy theory that Newsweek made the change because they're working for the government, be my guest. After all, Winston Smith's job was to rewrite past news articles so history reflects the will Big Brother.

UPDATE: I should mention that I still love Atrios, and his is still my favorite blog (as should be evidenced by how many times I reference him). I'm not faulting him, though he has not yet made mention that the article changed as of this writing.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now Wonkette is pushing it. Maybe they posted it into their queue yesterday before the change was made. Also, it occurs to me that even if it is stock footage, they may still be actors. Just throwing that out there.