Examiner offers “correction” for story correctly noting Rep. Roy Blunt had an affair

The Washington Examiner, a beltway publication with a conservative disposition well documented by Media Matters' Terry Krepel, is in hot water today for correcting a story about the saga of Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) that initially noted Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) too had an affair.

The story initially read (emphasis added):

Rep. Roy Blunt, the former House Majority Leader who is now a GOP candidate for governor (sic) in Missouri, is no stranger to scandal, having gone through an affair, a public divorce and remarriage under the scrutiny of the press.

The story now reads:

Rep. Roy Blunt, the former House Majority Leader who is now a GOP candidate for governor in Missouri, is no stranger to scandal, having gone through a public divorce and remarriage under the scrutiny of the press.

So, why was the story changed when it is demonstrably true that Blunt did have an affair with a tobacco lobbyist who would go on to become his current wife?

Confronted by the progressive blogosphere and folks on Twitter, Charlie Spiering, The Examiner's online community manager, posted the following on his Twitter profile:

A “correction”? For something that's true? We've seen a lot here at Media Matters but this takes the wedding cake.

By the way, it's nice to know the Examiner apparently has a policy of not letting its readers know when a story has been corrected. You'd think they would at least put something at the end of the article noting what the error was and that it's been fixed. But, I guess since there was no error this is to be expected?