It's not quite an airbrush alert, as the word still appears in the Times' original attack on McCain, but Ed Morrissey and Tom Maguire are noting that in follow-up articles, Timespersons are no longer using the R-word. Ed writes:

A day after insinuating that John McCain had an affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, all of the romance appears to have disappeared from the New York Times. Faster than one can say Roberta Flack, the flak taken by the Gray Lady has apparently resulted in a Soviet-style purge of the sexual allegations from their story. Recall this in paragraph 2 of the original article:

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

Tom Maguire notes that now, Eastasia has never been at war with Oceania -- er, the story was never about sex. In her Friday follow-up, Elisabeth Bumiller cast the story in this manner:

Senator John McCain on Thursday disputed an account in The New York Times that top advisers confronted him during his first presidential run with concerns about his ties to a female lobbyist

After leading with the allegations of sexual misconduct on Thursday, the Times waters it down within 24 hours to "concerns" about "ties" to a female lobbyist. A day after spreading unsubstantiated gossip, they've backpedaled to the "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" method of journalism. Readers could fill in the blanks after two paragraphs, though, when Bumiller could report that McCain denied ever having an affair with Iseman.

Rush Limbaugh noted that McCain said he was "disappointed" by the New York Times' hit piece, and wonders, if he truly is disappointed and surprised, he must have been the only man on the planet not to know that however cozy he relationship with the press was in the past, they'd start to turn on him the moment he locked up the GOP nomination.

As Denny Green would say, "They are who we thought they were."

Update: The people have spoken, the bastards.