This article evidences what allowing less than intellectually credible
re****ting leads to. Wikipedia has no system of accountability for its
so-called encyclopedic information gathering, and allows many usenet
abusers to contribute to its information database (such as
sheri...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
AKA Tony Sidaway). Jimmy Wales is the owner of this
site.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10337376/
'The Situation with Tucker Carlson' for Dec. 2nd
CARLSON: Here's a story that proves the old adage you can't
believe everything you read, to which we add, especially online.
Retired journalist John Siegenthaler was shocked to read his biography
posted on Wikipedia.com. That's the online encyclopedia that is
edited by its own readers.
The bio included the following quote, "For a brief time, he was
thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations
of both John and his brother Bobby. Nothing was ever proven."
Completely untrue, says John Siegenthaler. He has yet to find out who
posted the entry.
John Siegenthaler Sr. is a longtime editor and publisher of the
"National Tennessean" as well as the founder of the Freedom Forum
First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.
Mr. Siegenthaler, thanks a lot for coming on.
JOHN SIEGENTHALER, EDITOR/PUBLISHER, "NATIONAL TENNESSEAN": Thanks
a lot for having me.
CARLSON: So who did this? And if you still don't know, tell us what
you did to try and find out?
SIEGENTHALER: Well, I don't know who did it, and I want to find out.
And I've tried to go to Wikipedia, where it appeared first in May.
I didn't find out about it until late September. But I'd like very
much to know. Wikipedia doesn't know.
It apparently was a customer of Bell South. Bell South says under the
law, privacy provisions prevent them from telling me who it is.
The only recourse I have is to file some John or Jane Doe lawsuit and
then let whoever did it have the op****tunity to quash the subpoena.
It's a very, very tough ordeal to break through the-through the
protection that is now encasing online and Internet communications.
CARLSON: But Wikipedia strikes me as a little different, because it
is, or it presents itself, anyway, as a reference book that people can
go to for facts.
SIEGENTHALER: Yes, it does. And it calls itself reliable and
accountable. Now there is a statement on the web site that it's not
responsible for error. But beyond that, its founder, Jimmy Wales, with
whom I talked, has said on a number of occasions that they correct
error in a number of minutes.
And my-and my story, my biography-my biography, in quotes-my
biography was up for four months before they brought it down.
And I learned yesterday from a note he put on his web site that dozens
of mirror web sites have picked it up. Now, I knew about two,
Answers.com and Reference.com, and they've taken it down, but I
don't know where else it is. And you know, it's disturbing.
CARLSON: You were in journalism for decades. Are you aware of any
instances where's Wikipedia has been used as a source for a news
story?
SIEGENTHALER: No, I have been told-I had been told before this
incident, I had been told by journalists, historians, school teachers
that they used it. School teachers tell me their students use it.
And my only point in all this is, you know, I'd like to unmask and
confront whoever-whoever wrote it. But my only point is that
Wikipedia's claims of accountability and credibility are simply not
valid. And that you can read anything on there and never know whether
it's fact or fiction.
CARLSON: Did you have any idea why someone would want to write
something like that about you? I know that you worked for Robert
Kennedy and were his friend and were a pallbearer at his funeral. Had
you ever been accused of anything like this before? Was this a rumor
that was out there? Was it totally out of the blue?
SIEGENTHALER: No, it was totally out of the blue. Nobody has ever had
the-that slight thought never occurred to anybody I ever knew. I
mean, it's out of the whole cloth, and which makes it all the more
puzzling. The whole idea that I lived in the Soviet Union for 13
years. I mean, who would say that? Who would say that, you know?
Maybe I should start calling myself Ivan and my wife Natasha. But no,
I didn't have the slightest idea.
CARLSON: So over the top. You lived in the Soviet Union.
Well, I hope you find out who did it. And I hope when you do you'll
come back and tell us who it is. John Siegenthaler, thanks a lot for
coming on.
SIEGENTHALER: Thank you so much, Tucker.
"The ancient Romans had a tradition: whenever one of their engineers
constructed an arch, as the capstone was hoisted into place, the
engineer assumed accountability for his work in the most profound way
possible: he stood under the arch. "
Michael Armstrong
Edmond H. Wollmann P.M.A.F.A.
=A9 2006 Altair Publications, SAN 299-5603
Astrological Consulting http://www.astroconsulting.com/
Articles http://www.astroconsulting.com/FAQs/info.htm
Artworks http://www.e-wollmann.com/TOC.htm
|
