Sam Clay and his friends at the Fairfax County library system, compilers of our “Nice & Curious Questions,” column have departed from their usual deep dive into the offbeat, curious and eccentric in Virginia to recount their own bizarre tale. The Washington Post published an article inaccurately implying that library officials were purging their stacks of literary classics to make room for trendier stuff. An outraged reader wrote a post on the National Review blog, and from there, the misinformation disseminated literally around the world.

In the old days, exacting a correction from the Washington Post would have sufficed to quell the controversy. These days, once the horse is out of the barn… er, the book is out of the library, er, whatever… it is exceedingly difficult to correct the misinformation. The Fairfax library controversy is a fascinating warning about the perils of the Internet. The Post made the original mistake, but at least the mistake was correctable. Once bad information breaks into the blogosphere, it can circulate endlessly.