When stories move quickly, a single detail can sometimes take on a life of its own. The day’s developments surrounding CIA Director David Petraeus includes one such detail: the number of e-mails that General John R. Allen is said to have sent to Tampa socialite Jill Kelley.

A defense official originally stated that the e-mails, sent since about 2010, numbered 20,000 to 30,000. It was quickly reported that this number in fact refers to the number of printed pages of correspondence, which actually number “a few hundred,” Craig Whitlock and Rajiv Chandrasekaran reported in today’s Post. . .