This is useful for pointing out if a news site is manipulating a narrative, but for other things, I think news site should get the privacy they need to make stealth edits.
Like:
More recently, the Times stealth-edited an article that originally listed “death” as one of six ways “you can still cancel your federal student loan debt.” Following the edit, the “death” section title was changed to a more opaque heading of “debt won’t carry on.”
This was just poor wording. No reason sites shouldn’t have the peace of mind to change poor wording without being called out.
This is actually a perfect example of why we need to archive these things. Don’t let corporations try to rewrite history wtf
If I controlled a paper, I’d force a git control system with publicly viewable edits made after publication.
Imagine the goodwill and trust that would instill in the public toward your paper.
Edit: I’ve thought the same thing about proposed legislation for a long time.
I think many have also been wondering about version control of legislation/law documents for some time as well. But I never understand why it’s not realized yet.