by now you have probably heard that john seigenthaler, once a part of robert kennedy’s staff, was amazed to read on wikipedia that he was involved in both kennedy assassinations.
seigenthaler was so righteously incensed, that he did what any established inside-the-beltway millionaire would do…he wrote an op-ed piece in usatoady decrying the internets.
our discussion of why this was the journalistic equivalent of using a shotgun on a fly, after the jump:
wikipedia, for those of you who are as cyber-savvy as john seigenthaler, is an open-source website on which anyone can add entries, to help create a communal fount of resource information on all topics. it’s essentially, a communal encyclopedia in which all of us who take the time are contributors and editors.
the great thing about wikipedia is that it is designed to be self-correcting…if someone adds something that is erroneous, or down right malicious, it is but a matter of time before somebody else spots it and corrects it.
the vast majority of contributors to wikipedia try to maintain a neutral position on facts, and, by in large, it’s working. there have been a few recent incidents of unscrupulous partisans trying to add derogatory remarks to specific entries, but the self-correcting aspect of the wiki takes care of these aberrations quickly.
apparently, though, not quickly enough for john seigenthaler. the misinformation made it from the wiki over to answers.com and reference.com, where it stayed for several weeks. seigenthaler went on a personal quest to erase false information about himself from the internets, going so far as to trace the ip of the unknown biographer to an isp (southwest bell) which remained particularly unhelpful in identifying the miscreant.
so poor john seigenthaler has nasty stuff about himself on the internets for a few months, and was powerless to do anything about it, except take it off. which brings us to our point.
anybody who actually bothers to read on wikipedia would know its nature of collaborative effort and self-correction. for john seigenthaler to complain to wiki creator jimmy wales because something on the site was incorrect, is rather like walking into a classroom and deciding to sue the school system because someone wrote “seigenthaler is a doody-head” on the chalk board. gee, john, just erase it.
we are not ones to belittle those who have worked for our country’s behalf in any administration, but to be totally honest, we never even heard of john seigenthaler, sr., until this brou-ha-ha. and it seems a little over-reationary to call a wikipedia entry libelous. john, are you going to sue the people who spread rumors about your total lack of hipness as well?
it is our opinion that those unable to consider the source when reading false information about themselves (especially on the internets, where, after all, the biggest product is porn), probably have too much time on their hands, not to mention an over-inflated sense of self.
wait, this information is incorrect! or at least incomplete!
