Hmmm. That's an innovation.

In this morning's press gaggle, one of the reporters asked the following question: "This was a direct order he defied, right? I mean, he did have a direct order that he defied?"

The White House then applied a footnote to this question -- noted with an asterisk -- which referenced this explanatory footnote: "The memos that were released, in fact, show the President was working with his commanders to comply with the order."

This is a bit stunning.

Now it's not enough that we have a transcript in which the press asks questions and McClellan answers them or rebuts their implications. We get editorial notes explaining what the reporter really meant or disputing the question after the fact so that no one can follow up and call them on a demonstrable distortion.

Can't we just go back to the good old days when McClellan's office just edited the transcript after the fact? It was so much simpler.