Poynter.org has a great piece up about how and when news outlets should -- or shouildn't -- “unpublish” posted items.

As yet the latest sign that online news issues are far different from those of print, the question of when to take down an item remains a hot topic.

“Most news organizations are reluctant to remove content from their Web sites. They want to preserve the integrity of the archive, and worry that if they unpublish a story based on one request they'll have to do so for everyone who makes these requests,” Poynter's Mallary Jean Tenore writes. “Some news organizations have experimented with alternatives to unpublishing that have allow them to both maintain the public record and, when appropriate, appease the person who wants the record erased.”

She goes on to cite examples from several editors, among them Philip Corbett, associate managing editor for standards at The New York Times, who said his paper gets several unpublishing requests per week, some dating back years.

“It is a shocking thing for people to realize that some 300-word story buried inside The New York Times 15 years ago can now appear instantly on your computer screen,” Corbett told Poynter. “We understand that this can cause problems they never anticipated, but we don't think it's in the interest of the reader or the public to alter or to expunge or to erase that record.”

Don't expect this issue to end any time soon.