On US TV News, they get answers from Gordon first and ask questions later

Gordon Brown was interviewed for CBS News by Katie Couric last night. Couric, a former star breakfast show presenter, was brought in after veteran Dan Rather quit following a scandal over one of his reports, to freshen up the news. She has been a ratings disaster and is likely to be replaced. But a quick inspection of the CBS website reveals that the Americans are still in the business of getting answers first and asking questions later. In the CBS transcript, Couric asks Brown:

COURIC: There were 20,000 British troops at the time of the invasion, now there are only 2,000. You had planned to reduce that number but earlier this month you
decided to put that on hold. Why?

Of course, that is inaccurate. Which is why in the clip that was broadcast, she is heard asking:

There were 43,000 British troops at the time of the invasion. And now there are only 4,000 in Basra. You had planned to reduce that number to 2,500. But earlier this month, you decided to put that on hold. Why?

On this occasion, it doesn't really change the nature of the question, even it stops Couric sounding silly. But, when a similar incident happened here, there was an outcry, and 'noddies' as well as re-edited questions were banned by some channels. Yet in fact-check rich America, it's apparently OK to alter the question after the event. To be fair, we only know this because CBS put the whole unedited transcript on their website. That is something we could copy more routinely here for recorded interviews.