April 28, 2006
Wiki Woes for U.S. Politicians
A Georgia gubernatorial candidate accepted the resignation of her campaign manager after he was accused of changing the online Wikipedia biography of an opponent.
Secretary of State Cathy Cox's opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, said campaign manager Morton Brilliant altered an online encyclopedia entry to include a reference to Taylor's son being arrested for DUI after an accident that killed his passenger. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales confirmed these accusations. The Taylor for Governor campaign responded by accusing Cox of exploiting a family tragedy for political purposes and calling for her resignation, although Cox denied any knowledge of the addition.
This story is only the most highly publicized of a number of recent campaign scuffles involving Wikipedia. Brilliant has also been accused of editing the Wikipedia profile of current Governor Mark Sanford. Nearly twenty more changes have since been made to Sanford's profile, presumably by both sides of the aisle.
Wikipedia has attempted to deal with problems concerning politically motivated revisions by tightening its submission guidelines and setting up alerts so that operators know when Capitol Hill staffers edit online profiles.
Related Articles:
Cox to 'Deal With' Wiki-Attack
Campaign Manager Resigns Amid Wikipedia Flap
South Carolina Politicos Get Tangled in Web Forum
Posted by Buzz Webster at April 28, 2006 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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