On 01 October 2003, the New York Times published the article "White House Besieged With Questions Over Leaking of Name" by David Stout. A couple of bloggers, including Atrios, immediately pointed out this astoundingly asinine paragraph regarding the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name by senior Bush Administration officials:

The scandal over the leak is hard to define in one or two sentences. It does not seem to involve issues of constitutional gravity, like Watergate or the Iran-contra affair, or at least not directly. It does not have to do with greed. Nor does it seem to involve matters of national security.

Soon, that boneheaded paragraph was completely gone, with no indication that the article had been changed.

Google News provides proof-positive that these words were originally in the article, as this screenshot of a search shows:

NY Times article as it stands now | Mirror of Google search page

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