-
Aug 17, 2006 2:41 pm US/Central
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Gutknecht Caught Attempting To Edit Wikipedia Bio
Washington, D.C. (AP) ―
Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., is the latest politician to be found tweaking his Wikipedia biography, joining Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.
Wikipedia page histories show that Gutknecht's office twice tried to replace an entry on him with his official congressional biography.
Gutknecht tried to erase references to a 12-year term-limit he imposed on himself in 1995.
In both cases, the original entry -- and the term-limit information -- were restored within hours.
Jon Yarian, a spokesman for Gutknecht, didn't dispute that they tried to change the entry and questioned Wikipedia's reliability.
"We're concerned when anyone looks to Wikipedia for factual information," Yarin said. "This is the same source that called former Assistant Attorney General John Seigenthaler a murderer in his official Wikipedia entry ... I would encourage people to find a more trustworthy place to do their research."
Daniel Bush, a 15-year-old Wikipedia editor from Nashville who spotted the changes, said he wanted to protect the integrity of the online encyclopedia, which was created in 2001 and invites the public to volunteer information for its entries.
"There's a policy against autobiographical edits," said Bush, who's home-schooled by his parents. "At Wikipedia, we call these 'edit wars."'
The incident echoed a similar effort earlier this year by Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., to remove a passage about a broken term-limit pledge. Others who tweaked information in their Wikipedia entries include Sens. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Last January, Coleman also tried to changed "liberal" to "activist" in his entry and Biden tried to tone down references to a past accusation of plagiarism.
The site lifted a block on the computer that serves the entire Congress Wednesday after Wikipedia administrators decided it was an "excessive block for an (Internet Protocol) shared by hundreds of people."
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)