This is an article about articles. They're going AWOL.

Sitting down to chat last year with Amazon.com Inc.'s Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, television host Charlie Rose announced that the two would discuss "the Kindle," Amazon's e-reader. But throughout the interview, Mr. Bezos repeatedly dodged the word "the," saying how "Kindle is succeeding," that "Kindle is a companion to tablet computers" and touting how many e-books are "available for Kindle."

Mr....