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Senators Caught Rewriting Wikipedia Elizabeth Millard, newsfactor.com
Thu Feb 9, 5:31 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2616&ncid=2616&e=41&u=/nf/20060209/tc_nf/4...

Online reference compendium Wikipedia has found that employees working in the U.S. Congress have made several changes to political biographies, removing facts considered negative and tweaking language to portray politicians in a better light.


Wikipedia began an investigation after a Democratic representative, Marty Meehan, admitted that he had spiffed up his online biography page.

It was found that articles on other senators had been changed, sometimes significantly, and that the edits could be traced to computers on Capitol Hill.

Although Wikipedia is a collectively run reference, and can be edited by any of its users, those who run the site attempt to police changes to make sure they adhere to fact and not opinion or prejudice.

Track Record

In its investigation, Wikipedia examined the public edit history on the political biography pages in question. Researchers discovered the links to the U.S. Senate and began checking the biographies that had been visited.

Half a dozen pages were changed, according to Wikipedia, including those of California Senator Dianne Feinstein, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, and Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman.

Senator's Coleman staff confirmed the changes, noting that they had made several changes, such as a description of the senator in college. Where he had once been described as a "liberal," the staff edited the listing to dub him an "activist."

Staff members of Senator Harkin removed a paragraph noting that Harkin had claimed falsely to have been in combat in North Vietnam, a claim he later recanted.

Wikipedia also stated that there had been some "vandalism" of biographies, such as an entry for Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, which erroneously claimed he had been voted "most annoying senator."

The edits likely will raise the question of whether those with a vested interest in a listing's subject should be editing the material, Wikipedia has noted.

Global Village

Although he did not comment on the recent brouhaha surrounding the changes by members of Congress, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales did note that the site is actually quite traditional in its approach to objectivity and fairness.

"We employ an open, transparent, accountable process," he said. "This involves a lot of discussion and debate."

Wikipedia has come under fire in recent months by critics that question the reliability of its information. But the site's investigation into the Congressional changes do highlight how closely amendments to information are scrutinized.

Others have criticized Wikipedia's inclusion of anonymous sources, although that has been severely curtailed by recent policy changes.

"Most of the prominent contributors are not anonymous," said Wales. "We are an actual community in the sense that we know each other and have fun working together."