Posted on 02/09/2006 11:57:14 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Washington -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office acknowledged today that a former staff member had removed references to the California Democrat's net worth on the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, as well as altered entries about her husband Richard Blum's Chinese investments in 1997.
A former staff member "independently went on to Wikipedia to correct some material he felt was not appropriate," said Feinstein spokesman Howard Gantman. "The senator was not even aware of it."
The changes to the biographies of members of Congress, allegedly by their staffs, have again raised questions about the credibility of the online encyclopedia that has become an authoritative source for millions of Internet users.
The disclosure by Feinstein's office today was the latest admission from a handful of senators' offices that staff members had been beautifying their bosses' biographies on Wikipedia.
Gantman said the changes to Feinstein's bio had been made by a former staff member in May and June of last year. The former staff member, whose name Gantman wouldn't release, had also added to Feinstein's list of awards and corrected an error on the Web site.
Gantman said that Feinstein's office policy has been changed to ensure that future changes to Feinstein's biography be made through an official notice to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia operates as an "open source" information site that anyone can add to or edit -- viewed as a strength and a weakness of the site that Hitwise tracked as the second-most visited Internet reference site after Dictionary.com. The idea is that self-policing in that its users will find and correct inaccuracies, continually improving the content.
After biased edits were discovered on the biography of Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., an investigation by the Wikipedia Foundation's Wikinews traced public edits from all House and Senate internet protocol addresses.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Trust but verify :)
I know that Wiki is liberally biased when it comes to political profiles and now, at least, I have an idea why.
Also removed, according to the Wikinews account, was "a paragraph regarding a conflict of interest debate from 1997 when Mr. Blum had invested millions of dollars in Chinese businesses when Ms. Feinstein was campaigning in the Senate to lift trade sanctions against the country. Mr. Blum later announced he would donate all profits from his Chinese investments to charity."
How about the fact that her husband changed his name..? A man that does that is...very...shadey.
I wonder if under Al Gore it lists him as the inventor of the internet?
Or Bill Clinton as the first black president?
ROFL!
I am going to march my butt over to Wikipedia right now and put up a reference to this story on Feinstein's article.
Read the whole article if ya can , folks, references to others in Congress are also interesting if not amusing, to say the least.
anybody can edit anything. I would be very surprised if our politicians weren't doing the same thing to their entries.
Translation - Changes will stay as they are.
After biased edits were discovered on the biography of Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., an investigation by the Wikipedia Foundation's Wikinews traced public edits from all House and Senate internet protocol addresses.
Translation - If you're going to whitewash a dems bio, do it from a non public computer.
Looks like someone beat me to the punch.
"I wonder if under Al Gore it lists him as the inventor of the internet? "
If not feel free to add it!
If this pic isn't in her Wikpedia entry, it needs to be.
Her Bio mentions nothing about her being a socialist, although it does mention that she is a baby killer.
They edited out her childhood picture too:
Makes ya wonder if anything we hear or read nowadays, is real. I doubt the good guys would do this though.
Looks like someone beat me to the punch.
---
Yup, they did a good job actually. Kudos for that one.
Then get on there, remove the bias.
Does the Al Gore bio mention his friend Rev. Phelps (D)?
After 1992 he tried to distance himself publicly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.