Rush's Wikipedia Libelist Traced to Law Firm and Guess What?

American Thinker ^ | 10-16-09 | Ralph Alter

[thouworm]

October 16, 2009 The Search for the Wikipedia Libelist (important update) Ralph Alter

Thanks to an intrepid blogger with the tag Trapdoc posting a letter to Mark Steyn, the search for the Wikipedia Libelist responsible for damaging posts to the Rush Limbaugh account has been narrowed to the IP address of a New York City law firm:

"The quotes were added by a user with the IP address of 69.64.213.146. This address has been used mostly to make changes to the article about Rush, but also Karl Rove, Sean Hannity,.. James Dobson and Sara Palin from 2005 until earlier this year.

"While others have noted this in various forums, no one seems to have made the connection that this IP address is used as a gateway by the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP (see here, for example) that all users from that IP address come from the pbwt.com domain.)"

The firm provides a wide array of legal services with a broad spectrum of politically correct causes served:

"It is one of the first major firms in New York City to elect a woman as managing partner. In addition to its Diversity Committee, a group of Patterson Belknap attorneys formed PAC -- Patterson Attorneys of Color -- to assist with the enhancement of workplace diversity and the recruitment, retention and promotion of attorneys of color. Another group, Out at Patterson, focuses on issues relevant to the firm's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and Women Lawyers at Patterson (WLAP) focuses on women's issues."

Considering Rush's militant political incorrectness, there may be a large number of potentially culpable attorneys and/or staffers to choose from. However, a forensic data retrieval technician should surely be able to narrow the focus and identify the likely poster. Perhaps Rush can enlist the aid of PBWT alumni, Rudy Giuliani, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau or firm partner, Edward F. Cox, (son-in-law of former President, Richard M. Nixon) in his search for justice.

There is no question that Mr. Limbaugh has been damaged by the salacious quotes added to his Wikipedia profile and their dissemination in the PC-stream media. Hope this helps, Rush.

You know they say the only cure for a lawyer is another lawyer.....

Ralph Alter blogs at Right On Target

Update from Thomas Lifson:

Well, well, well, lookee here (from the firm's own website)

Firm Establishes Sports Group September 21, 2009

Growing Cross-Disciplinary Practice Handles Disputes and Transactions for Numerous Sports-Related Entities

NEW YORK, NY - September 21, 2009. Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP is pleased to announce the formal establishment of its interdisciplinary Sports Group. The firm's work in this area dates back decades and includes high-profile disputes and transactions involving professional baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis and golf, as well as the representation of sports-related media entities. Among other matters on behalf of various leagues, teams, and other sports-related entities, over the last several years our attorneys regularly have litigated complex commercial matters, handled sensitive internal investigations issues, and provided corporate, intellectual property and charitable giving advice both in high-profile transactions and as day-to-day legal advisors.

Our Sports Group attorneys' specific experience includes the representation of:

* A leading sports news network as a defendant in a case in which the plaintiff argued that fantasy sports games offered on its website constituted illegal gambling. The court dismissed this case of first impression with prejudice. * Various investor groups as intellectual property counsel in their acquisitions and proposed acquisitions of Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and NASCAR teams. * A professional sports league in an investigation of and issuance of a report concerning allegations made by a member team that a rival team violated the league's anti-tampering rules. * A professional sports hall of fame as plaintiff in a trademark infringement litigation culminating in a successful settlement requiring a change to defendant's use of its mark. * A major U.S. professional soccer league in its formation and launch. * The seller of a Major League Baseball franchise in a breach of contract litigation with an investment bank. * A leading regional sports network in connection with its broadcasting rights agreement to license professional baseball and basketball games to local television stations. * A professional basketball team's foundation in connection with its charitable activities. * A not-for-profit organization formed to further New York City's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in connection with intellectual property matters.

Patterson Belknap's Managing Partner, Bob LoBue, said, "To provide maximum value to our clients, it makes sense to combine in a single working group the full range of skills and experience that the firm has to offer to our sports industry clients. We believe our broad experience advising these entities will be a great asset to them going forward in today's fast-paced and dynamic business environment."

The Sports Group includes leading Litigation, White Collar Defense and Investigations, Intellectual Property, Tax-Exempt Organizations and Corporate attorneys, including:

Litigation:

Peter C. Harvey is the former Attorney General of the State of New Jersey and the first African-American to hold that position. He is active in investigations and complex commercial litigation nationwide. His clients include sports-related and media and entertainment entities. Prior to becoming Attorney General, Mr. Harvey served as First Assistant Attorney General and the Director of the Division of Criminal Justice. He previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Robert W. Lehrburger is a trial and appellate attorney who handles commercial and intellectual property matters, including false advertising, infringement (trademark, copyright and patent), licensing, unfair competition and other complex business disputes. He has written and lectured on a number of intellectual property and litigation topics ranging from deceptive advertising on the internet to domain name cybersquatting to trademark issues lurking in song titles and lyrics.

Daniel S. Ruzumna spent six years at the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he last served as Acting Chief of the Major Crimes Unit. His practice focuses on white collar criminal defense and related regulatory proceedings, internal investigations, and complex financial litigation. He has represented corporations and corporate executives in many recent high-profile criminal and regulatory investigations involving alleged violations of the securities laws, antitrust laws, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Saul B. Shapiro is a nationally recognized litigator and veteran of several high-profile sports industry disputes and investigations. His work includes the representation of professional sports leagues and television networks. He is noted consistently as a leading practitioner in Chambers USA, as well as a "Litigation Star" in Euromoney / Institutional Investor's Benchmark: America's Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys. Mr. Shapiro is co-Chair of the firm's Media and Entertainment Practice.

Transactional:

Karen R. Berry focuses her practice on intellectual property counseling, transactions, and licensing matters, and has particular skill in internet and new media, including "virtual world" issues. She handles software licensing, trademark licensing and a broad range of other agreements for clients that include sports-related entities and individuals. Ms. Berry is a frequent speaker on intellectual property issues concerning for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.

William F. Gaske is a tax-exempt organizations lawyer advising on corporate structures and governance, corporate sponsorships, charitable contributions and solicitations and other tax, corporate and general legal matters. He also represents clients before the Internal Revenue Service in matters involving audits, private letter rulings and requests for technical assistance and assists clients with matters under review by the New York Attorney General's office.

Daniel C. Glazer is a nationally recognized intellectual property attorney who has handled several high-profile sports-related transactions. He frequently appears in the national media as a commentator on legal issues in sports (including on CNN, ESPN, NBC, FOX, MSNBC and NPR), has published numerous articles on sports law topics in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and The Seton Hall Journal of Sport Law, and has been profiled in The New York Law Journal regarding his activities in the field. Mr. Glazer has been recommended by Legal 500 U.S. in the category of Sports Law.

Contacts for the Sports Group are Saul B. Shapiro (212-336-2163/sbshapiro@pbwt.com) for Litigation matters; Daniel S Ruzumna (212-336-2034/druzumna@pbwt.com) for Investigations; and Daniel C. Glazer (212-336-2523/dcglazer@pbwt.com) for Transactional matters.

[NonValueAdded]

Practicing sports law ... hmmm, might they be backing another bidding group? If so and they were manipulating the entry recently, well ... you can just imagine!

[Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo]

Contributor	Occupation	Date	Amount	Recipient
SHAPIRO, SAUL BROOKLYN,NY 11201	PATTERSON BELLKNAP WEBB & TYLER LLP	9/23/08	$2,300	Obama, Barack (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL CEDAR FALLS,IA 50613	WARTBURG COLLEGE/CHIEF COMMUNICATIO	8/28/08	$250	Obama, Barack (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL NEW YORK,NY 10065	NYC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP./VICE	7/17/07	$250	Obama, Barack (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL B BROOKLYN,NY 11201	PATTERSON BELKNGE WEBB & TYLER LLP/	6/14/07	$2,300	Clinton, Hillary (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL B BROOKLYN,NY 11201	PATTERSON BELLENGO WEBB TYLER LLP/A	3/28/07	$500	Richardson, Bill (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL NEW YORK,NY 10036	PATTERSON BELKNAP WEBB & TYLER L/AT	8/19/05	$500	Yassky, David (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL NEW YORK,NY 10021	NYC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP./VICE	7/4/04	$500	Kerry, John (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL B BROOKLYN,NY 11201	PATTERSON BELKNAP WEBB & TYLER LLP	5/4/04	$500	Clinton, Hillary Rodham (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL NEW YORK,NY 10021	NYC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP./VICE	4/12/04	$500	Kerry, John (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL B BROOKLYN,NY 11201	PATTERSON BELKNAP WEBB & TYLER/ATTO	3/25/04	$2,000	Kerry, John (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL B MR NEW YORK,NY 10024	PATTERSON BELKNAP ET AL./ATTORNEY	3/9/00	$1,000	Gore, Al (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL B NEW YORK,NY 10023	SELF-EMPLOYED	10/28/98	$250	Victory in New York
SHAPIRO, SAUL ,		10/3/96	$300	Gantt, Harvey B (D)
SHAPIRO, SAUL B NEW YORK,NY 10023	PATTERSON BELKNAP WEBB & TYLER	9/26/96	$250	New York State Democratic Cmte

[TribalPrincess2U]

Well what do you know! BUSTED!

Go Rush!

[thouworm]

thanks; I checked & missed; hope thread doesn’t get pulled; needs as much exposure as possible.

thanks for link

[BertWheeler]

I’m a fan of Rush Limbaugh, but I knew crap like this was going to be pulled as soon as his name was mentioned.

The left is INTOLERANT.

[La Lydia]

“Start the legal proceedings against this law firm.” And then, as Jackie Gleason used to say, “How sweet it is.”

[Laserman]

I suspect a good case could be made that they concocted this slander in hopes of generating business for their firm when Rush sues the parties involved in the media and NFL. If that is the case, the firm could lose BIG TIME. I would expect slander for profit is a serious crime.

[Willie Green]

Perhaps Rush can enlist the aid of PBWT alumni, Rudy Giuliani...

RINO Rudy is gonna help Rush???

I think he might be better off picking someone different.

[dannyboy72a]

Someone is getting three or four new holes on their backside this afternoon.

[thouworm]

From Freeper JustLurking

I’ve found a few interesting things. Draw your own conclusions.

* The anonymous contributions from 69.64.213.146 to Wikipedia.
* The contributions from Eleemosynary to Wikipedia.
* The anonymous contributions from 69.64.213.146 to Wikiquote.

Note that the bogus quotes were posted to Wikiquotes, not Wikipedia.

This is when the bogus quotes were first inserted in June, 2005:

http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Rush_Limbaugh&diff=prev&oldid=90990

And after a couple of reverts and restores, it appears to be removed here in October, 2005:

http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Rush_Limbaugh&diff=next&oldid=112347

The quotes stay gone until they are added here in January, 2008:

http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Rush_Limbaugh&diff=prev&oldid=653276

The previous quotes were dated, but unsourced. This time, the quotes are sourced to a book. However, it’s from a different IP address: 69.86.228.202

OK, here’s where it gets interesting. Someone posted this:

http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:69.86.228.202&direction=prev&oldid=634575

An editor has expressed concern that this IP address has been used by Eleemosynary - suspected via BLP reverts at Rush Limbaugh page. POV edit warrior with multi-ban history for edit warring.

Now, page through the later versions of this page, by clicking on “Newer version”. It goes through several iterations of posting this claim, then having it deleted. And it’s deleted by an anonymous user at both 69.86.228.202 and 69.64.213.146 (the address that made the original entry).

There’s a similar set of entries on the user page for 69.64.213.146:

http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:69.64.213.146&direction=prev&oldid=634576

And as with the other IP address, both 69.86.228.202 and 69.64.213.146 are used to repeatedly blank out the accusation.

That pair of IP addresses also shows up elsewhere:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Fox_News_Channel

But, 69.86.228.202 hasn’t been blocked from Wikipedia. If Eleemosynary was using that IP address, he/she was careful to avoid making changes to Wikipedia from that address while logged in — PMCU doesn’t list it as an IP address for Eleemosynary.

I could find only one anonymous change to Wikipedia from 69.86.228.202 — to Matt Sanchez. But it’s interesting if you start with this revision:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Matt_Sanchez&diff=next&oldid=194348004

Now, click on “Next Edit” several times, and you’ll notice an edit war between Eleemosynary and SatyrTN over whether Matt is a “writer” or a “blogger”. During one of the reverts, someone anonymously reverted to “blogger” (Eleemosynary’s position) from 69.86.228.202.

I think someone should check into the origin of 69.86.228.202. It “belongs” to Earthlink:

EarthLink, Inc. ERLK-CBL-TW-NYC (NET-69-86-0-0-1)
69.86.0.0 - 69.86.255.255
EARTHLINK,INC ERLK-TW-NYC31 (NET-69-86-224-0-1)
69.86.224.0 - 69.86.231.255

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=2363558%2C111

[Fiddlstix]

The quotes were added by a user with the IP address of 69.64.213.146.......

Busted
Bump
Ping

[truthguy]

I give anything to be a fly on the wall today when this firm has their staff meeting. You gotta know that they are in serious damage control mode. Somebody is going to have to take the fall for this. I wouldn't want to be a junior parter or staffer in this organization. They will usually be the ones thrown under the bus.

I don't have to give my opinion of the members of this firm. Their BIOS speak for themselves and most members of FR know how to read between the lines.

This just might get interesting. I wonder where the intrepid MSM is (sarcasm)?

[Tzimisce]

Wow - is this true?

Just....wow...

[GWMcClintock]

Better yet, donate the money to CONSERVATIVE people running for office, and Free Republic! (Go Jim Rob!)

[EDINVA]

If he sues, I hope he sues in federal court in Florida. Certainly he has ‘diversity’ of jurisdiction, interstate commerce, fraud, wire fraud, etc., and damages well over $70K (or whatever the minimum is in federal court).

It’s in the firm’s interest to find out exactly who within their employ did this and to fire him/her/them. We’d have to assume it was done without authority from the firm itself.

Their website shows the sports industry group head is an African-American, so one has to wonder (but not much) if he’s friends with DeMaurice. This is one thick plot, and only getting thicker.

[z3n]

"wiki needs to take responsibility for this, too."

I wholeheartedly disagree! Everyone knows that wikipedia is openly edited information.
Aside from that, all changes are moderated by others, and the false information was removed as it should have been.
What is more, it is wikipedia's tracking of editing, including IP addresses, that has made it transparent.

Legally speaking, Wikipedia is a "Service Provider". They are not a publisher. The content on the site is authored by participants, which makes wikipedia a conduit.

Should freerepublic get sued because of idiot comments on here?

[NaughtiusMaximus]

IMHO the MSM will bury this story deep and this law firm’s business will probably increase if it does break.

[thouworm]

UPDATE from JustLurking

Interestingly, Rush’s page at WikiQuotes cannot currently be edited.

It’s in “semi-protected” stage for a week, starting 2009-10-14:

Semi-protection prevents editing by unregistered contributions and contributors with accounts which are not autoconfirmed.

It looks like his Wikipedia page is in a similar mode.

This is common for pages that suddenly experience a surge of interest due to external events, because it usually results in anonymous “vandalism”.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2363558/posts?page=140#140

[clee1]

See my tag line.