Premature Obits For Kennedy, Byrd May Force New Wikipedia Rules

[babylonsister]

Premature obituaries may force new Wikipedia rules

Online encyclopedia may vet entries after falsely reporting senators' deaths

By Amol Rajan
Tuesday, 27 January 2009


Entries on the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia may have to be pre-approved after it wrongly claimed that Senator Edward Kennedy had died.

The user-generated site, in which members of the public are encouraged to provide the entries, is to review the rules governing contributions. It could lead to entries being centrally approved before being published, which would constitute a radical overhaul of the site's operations.

Calls for a review followed the embarrassing revelation that pages on Senator Robert Byrd and Senator Edward Kennedy, two prominent American politicians, falsely gave the impression that each had died.

Senator Kennedy, who is severely ill with a malignant brain tumour, went into convulsions during an inaugural lunch for President Barack Obama in Washington on 20 January. But his entry on the site wrongly stated that he had died: "Kennedy suffered a seizure at a luncheon following the Barack Obama presidential inauguration on 20 January 2009. He was removed in a wheelchair, and died shortly after." News reports said later that, according to his doctors, he was suffering from fatigue.

A similar error was made on the entry for Senator Byrd.

more...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/premature-obituaries-may-force-new-wikipedia-rules-1516798.html

[Lyric]

1. The problem is that Wiki-obsessed nuts desperately fight

to be the first to post BIG breaking news. They'll gamble on whether or not someone is dead, just in case they MIGHT be right, for the "prestige" of being the first to post it.

Yeah, it really is that pathetic. *sigh*

[bottomtheweaver]

2. Bushler's last failure.

That plane thing didn't work out the way he planned either.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. Erroneous entries on their more trafficked pages are usually corrected within minutes

That's the whole idea behind Wiki. If there was a realistic way to moderate entries, it would be ideal.

[Jim Lane]

4. The linked article is misleading -- this issue long preceded the Byrd/Kennedy edits

The survey was begun a month before Inauguration Day.

The underlying dynamic is the concern about false statements in biographies of living persons. The high-minded explanation is that such errors could supposedly injure people; the more pragmatic view is that the Wikimedia Foundation doesn't want to be sued for defamation.

My personal opinion is that both concerns are valid but are way overblown in the current climate on Wikipedia, but that's an argument for another forum.

Wikipedia's more serious problem is the current understanding of the "reliable sources" rule. Biased MSM outlets like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are accepted without question. Alternative sources like Media Matters for America are routinely attacked, although of course their track record for accuracy is much better. We need more people editing Wikipedia who understand that the hallmark of reliability is not "subsisting primarily on advertising that tries to sell people crap they don't need".

[RFKJrNews]

5. Well it certainly would have been a more dramatic end for Sen. Kennedy

Fortunately, it wasn't true.

Sounds like someone was just trying to write fiction with a twist at the end: "Teddy dies just moments after Obamalot begins!"

Crikey, I'm surprised this wasn't the headline in the NY Post's evening edition on Inauguration day. Y'know how well the NY tabloids handled that whole Caroline Kennedy thing...