Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-30/In the news

In the news

Congressional editing

An article in the Massachusetts Lowell Sun ("Rewriting history under the dome") on January 27, followed by an Associated Press report on January 28, described how Massachusetts congressman Marty Meehan's staff deleted unflattering information from his article. The report quickly spread throughout the mediasphere and blogosphere (including stories at community sites Slashdot and digg), and is now being touched on in mainstream radio and television in Massachusetts.

Wikipedians have since uncovered over a thousand other anonymous edits, many of them vandalism or childish libel, appearing to originate from House of Representatives staffers (see related story). Evan Lehmann, author of "Wikipedia target of House 'editors'" published by The Transcript, confirmed House ownership of the IP addresses in question, and spoke to some of the government officials involved.

related story 2006-02-06

Media corrections to German Wikipedia story

The Associated Press printed a correction to the largely mistaken story it distributed last week on the "closure" of the German Wikipedia. ("Correction: Germany-Wikipedia story", Jan 27). Jimbo's explanation of the errors was reprinted in the HyperOrg blog: "The Media Gets Wikipedia Wrong Again".

Main page

The Korea Times discussed the featuring of the StarCraft article on the main page, noting that Wikipedia had paid special attention to the video game's popularity in Korea ("Wikipedia Features StarCraft Story", Jan 26). Of articles that have been featured on the front page, the StarCraft article was one of the most heavily edited, with over 300 edits during its day in the sun.