How to Find Out Who Is Editing Wikipedia Entries
Wikipedia is one of the most impressive social experiments to come out of the Internet, but there will always be a cloud of doubt hanging over the user-generated-encyclopedia site in the minds of those who don't trust its open nature. Anyone can log in and make changes and, of course, everyone does, including employees of Fox News, who saw fit to make a slight change to the entry about the decidedly conservative-minded news source. The change involved removing a quote from Al Franken that was captured on NPR's 'Fresh Air.' The original Fox News article included this line: "Franken said that Fox's case against him was 'literally laughed out of court' and that 'wholly (holy) without merit' is a good characterization of Fox News itself." After the edit by someone from within the Fox News organization, the entry read thusly: "Franken said that Fox's case against him was the best thing to happen to his book sales."
Oops.
The means to find these questionable edits comes from a tool called WikiScanner, which lets anyone browse article edits and find their source. This, of course, has resulted in a slew of entertaining finds, many of which are listed at Wired's Threat Level blog. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Republicans change "occupying" to "liberating"
- Wal-Mart changes wages from 20% less than competitors to double minimum wage
- Mean spirited republican spoils Harry Potter for thousands of people
- BBC changes George "Walker" Bush to George "Wanker" Bush
- EA deletes paragraphs of criticism about employment practices
From O'Reilly Radar
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Seraphine @ Aug 15th 2007 7:33PM
A new kind of accountability. Mud-slingers beware: you may find it sticking to your own glass house! Hooray for Wikipedia!
Teresha @ Aug 20th 2007 1:27AM
A lot of "spin mongering" has been found using the Scanner. The thing is that companies should keep an eye on what is written about them, it's simple brand monitoring. But they should also have policies regarding responding - editing out the icky bits just doesn't cut it.