01:09 Nov 20, 2011 

Guess I was being overly cautious, worrying that I may be missing something there.

Since you don't see any significant difference between the two, guess I'll go with one of the suggestions so far which just sounds better in the text.

00:57 Nov 20, 2011 

1) The author is not a native speaker of English (use of the wrong article suggests that), 2) the author is semi-literate and doesn't realize he has written the same thing in two different ways and has also used the wrong article, 3) the author is a subtle master of irony who has deliberately written the same thing in two ways (but that's inconsistent with using the wrong article). It seems to me that you should not guess at what a second meaning would be, but put the same idea two ways in Russian, somehow. Вопрос уже не в том, понимает ли кто-нибудь в чем дело, а в том, есть ли кто-нибудь, кто понимает в чем дело" (or whatever's better for "what's going on").

00:46 Nov 20, 2011 

I can't vouch for that since it's an anonymous column with no name put to the text.

However, the paper itself is a local English-language paper (not some other language community paper if that's what you mean). So yeah, with some reservations I have to presume that it was probably written by a native speaker.

On the other hand - I do agree that it looks a bit odd. Hence my question to begin with.

00:23 Nov 20, 2011 

"It is no longer the question of whether anyone knows but, rather, does anyone know what's going on?"

For me, the giveaway is "no longer THE question of". That particular formulation normally takes the indefinite article, not the definite: "It is no longer a question of".

That said, I don't know of any difference between the two. You can say either:
- The question is whether anyone knows what's going on.
- The question is: does anyone know what's going on?

They mean exactly the same.