TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar

Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Sun, 4 Dec 2005 14:50:46 -0500

Rewriting History -- Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
December 4, 2005

ACCORDING to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, John Seigenthaler
Sr. is 78 years old and the former editor of The Tennessean in
Nashville. But is that information, or anything else in Mr.
Seigenthaler's biography, true?

The question arises because Mr. Seigenthaler recently read about
himself on Wikipedia and was shocked to learn that he "was thought to
have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both
John and his brother Bobby."

"Nothing was ever proven," the biography added.

Mr. Seigenthaler discovered that the false information had been on
the site for several months and that an unknown number of people had
read it, and possibly posted it on or linked it to other sites.

If any assassination was going on, Mr. Seigenthaler (who is 78 and
did edit The Tennessean) wrote last week in an op-ed article in USA
Today, it was of his character.

The case triggered extensive debate on the Internet over the value and
reliability of Wikipedia, and more broadly, over the nature of online
information.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/weekinreview/04seelye.html?ex=1291352400&en=6a97402d6595c6f1&ei=5090

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