Michelle Singletary’s piece appeared again yesterday, this time in a somewhat shortened version in Louisville’s Courier-Journal (Singletary’s Post column is widely syndicated). You can see it here.

Interestingly, in this version, the oxymoronic “mixed message” phrase we pointed out to her, legitimate multilevel marketing scheme, has been deleted:

“With a legitimate multilevel marketer, participants make money selling products or services and getting commissions on sales made by their own recruits, not just by paying a fee and getting others to pay a fee to join the organization. It’s difficult to distinguish these [Note: not legitimate multilevel marketing schemes, just these] from pyramid schemes, which is why you need to be very cautious before joining, the FTC said.”

Hmm. It’s an improvement. Not a big one, but hey, sometimes victories come in inches. Did Ms. Singletary make the change herself, after receiving our letter? Or was this just an artifact of the syndicator’s copyediting desk? (Probably the latter—but I hope the former.)