The Wikipedia entry for Sarah Palin was overhauled substantially for the better in the 24 hours before the surprise announcement of her selection as Republican vice-presidential nominee. A mystery Wikipedia user — under the name Young Trigg — put in about 30 edits to the biographical article on the website.
Young Trigg also notes how the Governor had high approval ratings and kept her campaign pledges. A profile in the conservative Weekly Standard magazine was used as a source of details about how Mrs Palin was willing to “take on oil companies” and that she had “eye-popping integrity”.
All this took place before the Republican candidate John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate in the presidential elections.
Since the announcement the Sarah Palin page has been edited many hundreds of times more and Wikipedia has now put in place a partial block so that only established editors can change the entry. Some of Young Trigg’s entries have been amended or toned down.
Young Trigg made his or her last edits hours before the announcement and the unusual activity was noted first by National Public Radio. Arguments raged among Wikipedia editors about the alleged bias of Young Trigg’s entries and whether he or she was a “sock puppet”, an alternative anonymous account name taken on by the user to deceive.
I wonder if Young Trigg could be commenting, here, eh?
Damn, Trig Palin is a real talent!
Oh c’mon, now we’re all a twitter about wikipedia’s authenticity?
Whats a madda widdel one did da big bad weepubwicans get you all scaredypoodles?
Oh and allow me to get ahead of the event horizon and just hit myself with the standard “you obviously know nothing about $TOPIC and its time you presented us with facts about $YOURCLAIMS”
According to Wikipedia, she invented the internet and the moist paper towel. I’m impressed.
“I wonder if Young Trigg could be commenting, here, eh??”
Paranoid much?
Hey John, you might want to invest in a server upgrade. Dvorak.org has been down a lot lately.
#4
Lou, it is when they knew you were trying to get on the site.
“Young Trigg” = Karl “Seig Heil” Rove !!! So what else is new ???
Karl Rove is not a Nazi.We wouldn’t have him.
Woody Allens’ statement in Annie Hall was that
politicians are “one notch below child molestors”
Guess just the tools change over time – not human character
Sigh … I am already tired of hearing about Palin AND her family. I may have to stop watching live tv and listing to live radio to avoid all this Enquirer like “news” reporting.
“The Wikipedia entry for Sarah Palin was overhauled substantially for the better in the 24 hours”
Surprised? Wiki is about as authoritative as my daughters coloring book, maybe a bit less so.
The bottom line is that this selection demonstrates how intellectually bankrupt the GOP is.
#9 – I am already tired of hearing about Palin AND her family.
And I’m tired of the right pretending they know something about “family values”
Where is the photo of her and Jane Fonda?
When will Michael Palin step forth and announce that he’s a distant cousin and he’s writing a travel book about Alaska?
Even though I’m a big fan of Wikipedia, I know not to trust new and highly political entries.
If Wikipedia wants to keep some credibility, all they have to do is roll back the edits that “Trigg Young” did.
It’s easy to do, right?
Clearly, he’s a partisan.
>> Paddy-O said,
>> Surprised? Wiki is about as authoritative as my daughters coloring book, maybe a bit less so.
You don’t understand Wikipedia. Don’t be embarrassed, a whole lot of people misunderstand it, including most reporters.
MANY article on Wikipedia are fantastic and a good source of information. Thousands, probably.
But, the political ones are inaccurate because the authors are not impartial and can’t work together.
The immersing articles, tend to be sloppy because they are a work-in-progress with, often, only one or two guys working on them.
But many articles are mature and fair.
What many people don’t understand is that YOU, as a reader, have to make the judgment about a specific article. Some paid editor at the publisher doesn’t. Wikipedia is including some flags for standards and it’s helping. But, ultimately, it’s your job to judge credibility.
#16 Greg Allen – “If Wikipedia wants to keep some credibility, all they have to do is roll back the edits that “Trigg Young” did.”
Umm, no, it’ll take a bit more than that.
Interesting. Palin’s wiki entry mentions a potential scandal with the state trooper. Quite a bit on it.
Obama’s entry makes no mention of him being friends with a known terrorist.
Wiki has A LOT to do to have nonpartisan cred…
…and wait till you see what the McCain team and I have been doing to FaceBook. Or as we like to call it “setting the historical record into accordance with our wishes.”
Pretty funny. A couple weeks ago I wrote to his facebook page asking why he listed “race” as Af American and left out his Anglo-Am heritage. I just checked and “race” wasn’t listed… LOL.
Now get this from his page:
Employer: United States Senate
The guy thinks he’s “employed” by the Senate!
ROFL!
He doesn’t even know he works for the people and State of Illinois!
You do realize, don’t you, that paddy-o’s last name is Goebbels.
#23 Great rebuttal! How long have you worked as an Obama shill?
#11, “The bottom line is that this selection demonstrates how intellectually bankrupt the GOP is.”
Joe “Let me tell you how smart I am” Biden is so much better. Both candidates are tools who made their choices mostly out of political expedience. So what’s new? At least Palin hasn’t already run, and been rejected, for President several times before.
I think this is much to do about nothing, people edit wikipedia all the time with questionable information based upon a questionable agenda. It’s both the blessing and the curse of wikipedia. This is just another distraction from the real issues of the campaign.
To Editor
“taken on the by user to deceive.”
Switch “the by” for ‘by the’.
[Edit: the Brits use spell checkers as rarely as do Americans]
so how many people have changed it back since then? That I would like to know.
Oh get over it people. As if any one of you wouldn’t arrange that to happen for your secret unknown running mate. Sheesh.
#24 – Didn’t deny it, eh?
Let’s try an example of your statements of attainder: Gee, Paddy-O, I understand your concern, now that it’s clear which side of the White Supremacy issue you really care about.
And that’s only a half-way premise.
Dude, you’re not capable of verification, validation or intellectual honesty. Is that clear enough?
too bad, my ip is currently block for edit from wikipedia.
That’s cool! Even a retard can edit a wikipedia page!