Florida Senate Candidate: Scrubbing Of Wikipedia Page Was A “Careless Staff Mistake”

[jpak]

Source: Buzzfeed

Republican Rep. David Jolly, who is running for Senate in Florida, said Wednesday it was a mistake for his campaign to have edited his Wikipedia page to remove unflattering information.

“It was a careless staff mistake that I first learned about from the Times,” Jolly told the Tampa Bay Times. “I stand by my full record, relationships, and life experience, and believe every day that voters and the community are best served by having as much information as possible, regardless of whether it comes from critics or supporters.”

A spokesperson for Jolly, Sarah Bascom, confirmed to BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that the campaign removed references to Jolly’s past career as a lobbyist, his association with the Church of Scientology, his support for same sex marriage, and political contributions he made to Democratic candidates.

Bascom had accused a unspecified rival campaign of adding what she described as “campaign propaganda” in to the Wikipedia page, singling out a longtime Wikipedia editor named “Champaign Supernova” as working for the rival campaign.

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Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/florida-senate-candidate-scrubbing-of-wikipedia-page-was-a-c#.mrd1mP9x1

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[PatV]

1. "Don't look at me, it was one of the stupid peons. Why would I do something like that?"

[Tempest]

2. And now the scrubbing is part of his Wiki page

From his Wiki page:

In April 2016, Jolly's United States Senate campaign spokesperson Sarah Bascom confirmed that the campaign had made edits to his Wikipedia page to remove information about Jolly, including his ties to the Church of Scientology and lobbying activities.

[Raster]

3. We got caught cheating: So it's the Staff's fault...

...seriously, did we expect ANYTHING ELSE from a republican politician?

Rhetorical question...no answer necessary.

[happyslug]

7. People should watch Brian Donlevy in the "Great McGinty"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032554/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_87

The "Great McGinty" is a movie about Politics. In many ways it is an attack on Politicians, but also a movie saying this is how Politicians actually work, for otherwise the situation would be worse.

Two scenes of the movie applies to this situation. The first one, Donlevy's character is a low level politician in a corrupt political machine (and working his way up the Machine Ladder). As that low level he basically forces someone to pay the machine money to get what that person wanted done. Later on when he becomes mayor, a similar person comes for similar "Favor" and Donlevy as mayor, talks nicely to the man and tells him to go to see the person who at that point in the Movie hold the same position he held when he was the Machine's head basher (The actual name for the position had a nice polite name).

I bring this up for those two scenes explains how political machines work. The people on top have to keep their hands clean, thus it is "staffers" who do the actual dirty work. The "Staffers" do the dirty work, but in a way that they is no way to trace their actions to the top. If something goes wrong, it is the Staffer who loses his or her position, maybe even going to jail (and after being "Fired" or Jails, rehired by someone else in the Machine into a position that is simply ignored by the press and the voting public and returns to doing the dirty work of the top politicians in the machine.

At the same time period, when the top politicians are out of the public view, they check with the low level staffers to make sure the staffers are doing the dirty work. The top politicians know what is occurring below them, but it is all verbal, nothing in writing (and today NOTHING on E-mail and if the Politician is running a really slick machine, not even discussed over the phone (These things are discussed over dinner, at picnics and at other political gathering, but in a way there is NO record of the discussion).

Just a comment that both parties to this, for otherwise the party could NOT survive. A successful campaign tends to follow the same pattern for while the Top Politicians have to look "Clean", all campaigns have so much dirt they have to deal with. Thus you end up having staffers whose job is to handle that dirt and at the same time keeping it away from the top. That is the way it is and accepting it and dealing with it is the best way to control it. That was the point in the move the "Great McGinty" and why is is one of my favorite Political movies.

[Iggo]

4. "Careless"? "Mistake"?

I don't think those words mean what he thinks they mean.

[malthaussen]

5. In other words...

... "It was a careless mistake on our part to think we wouldn't get called out on this. I will sacrifice a staffer directly."

-- Mal

[Nitram]

6. Not "a careless staff mistake." An "unethical atempt to Help their candidate."