Wikipedia:Editing of Wikipedia by the media

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See also: Wikipedia in popular culture and Journalism ethics and standards

A number of media personalities have either strongly encouraged people to vandalise, or have actually vandalised, Wikipedia. This is particularly surprising, given that a journalist or media commentator would not do the same thing in real life. For instance, they wouldn't go to their local train station, spraypaint the seats, then write an indignant article that the security was so lax that they were able to perform acts of vandalism! Nevertheless, many media personalities do feel that they have the right to vandalise Wikipedia. These people include:

• Stephen Colbert, television comedian, strongly encouraged viewers to vandalise the Elephants article, instructing them to write that the number of elephants has recently tripled in order to confound liberal scientists.^[1] He has also encouraged his fans to change the wikipedia entry for reality to simply read: "Reality has become a commodity."
• Sarah Lane, on the live June 12, 2003 episode of The Screen Savers, wrote on the Wikipedia page on monkeypox: "Sarah Lane is totally cool and does not have monkeypox."^[2] She later wrote "Sarah Lane is a cool Screen Saver. Down with Monkeypox."
• Scott Mills and Mark Chapman, BBC Radio 1 DJs both vandalised and strongly encouraged their listeners to vandalise the article on Edith Bowman.^[3]
• Ivor Tossell, Globe and Mail journalist, wrote a news article on how he vandalised the human article, and then how a contributor provided a polite response asking him to stop. He wrote that the article "launch[es] into a 7,000-word list of things that most bipedal primates are already aware of" and roundly criticised it for making obvious statements. Tossell said that, "I snapped. I clicked the 'Edit' button, and anonymously revised that first line, so now it began, 'Humans -- hey! That's us!' And off I surfed, content that I'd given the self-righteous encyclopedians a poke in the ear." ^[4]
• Eric Zorn, journalist for the Chicago Tribune, created the article Zorn's law (like a Godwin's law), but it was soon deleted.^[5]
• According to NBC-owned-and-operated television station WCAU in Philadelphia, network anchorman and reporter Vince DeMentri vandalized his own article to say he had 27 children. The WCAU article says that "his IP address was registered [by Wikipedia] for security purposes"^[6], which is misleading: his IP address was recorded in the article's history page, as is always the case when an editor has not logged in with a Wikipedia account.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic included a faux clip of him vandalising the article of Atlantic Records on the music video for his single "White & Nerdy"; this was probably intended to be realized as a "revenge" of sorts against the record label for blocking the release of the parody "You're Pitiful" on his album Straight Outta Lynwood. This "revenge" was then enacted on the Atlantic Records article by several editors.^[7]
• Alexander M.C. Halavais, assistant professor of communications at Quinnipiac University, added inaccurate material to 13 articles. ^[8]
• Ryan North, online web-comic writer, has twice been involved in Wikipedia vandalism. The first act occurred on July 25, 2006, when he changed the article on Evil to read "Irish Evil." ^[9] More recently, on November 8, 2006, he created a tongue-in-cheek webpage imploring vandals to only vandalise the article concerning chickens, thereby making Wikipedia completely factually reliable for "every topic in the universe except chickens". ^[10][11]
• Tony Martin and Ed Kavalee, hosts of the Australian morning radio show Get This, regularly review their respective Wikipedia articles and that of their show, and discuss the latest vandalism that has occurred, encouraging their listeners to continue to vandalise the articles.
• The Guardian newspaper's online football (soccer) column, The Fiver edited Chelsea F.C. winger Arjen Robben's profile to say that he "is an accomplished scuba diver, a model-submarine enthusiast and the owner of a pet parrot named Greg Louganis" to suggest that he dives, or simulates being fouled to con referees.^[12]
• Mark Hinson of the Tallahassee Democrat says that he vandalised Bay County, Florida by addding the text "In 1990, Bay County issued a fatwa condemning the film 'Pretty Woman' for its sunny portrayal of prostitution. Though, Bay County did add that Julia Roberts looked totally hot in that polka-dot dress." Also wrote that he vandalised Calhoun County with the text "Calhoun County was created in 1838 and was named for Rocky 'Raccoon' Calhoun. In 1999, Calhoun County was thoroughly disappointed with Thomas Harris' sequel 'Hannibal' and felt it pandered to readers." The final article he writes about vandalising is Liberty County, Florida, with the text "Liberty County was created in 1855. It was named for the popular American ideal, liberty. In 2006, Liberty County issued an edict questioning why Bob Dylan's 'Modern Times' album was so universally praised by critics. It was good, but Liberty County still thinks Dylan's 'Street Legal' is an overlooked gem." His article severely criticises Wikipedia for forcing students to use Wikipedia as gospel and not check their facts. ^[13]
• The Sydney Morning Herald vandalised Wikipedia. Their "Stay In Touch" column vandalised Newspapers after noticing that Aspirin was in a vandalised state^[14]
• On 14 January 2007, Craig Reucassel and Chris Taylor, hosts of Triple J's Bloody Sunday radio show, after commenting on inaccuracy of their own Wikipedia articles the previous week, encouraged listeners to vandalise the Tara Reid article, which resulted in that article's semi-protection.^[15] The following week, they encouraged vandalism of Peter Overton, and were impressed at the swift actions of the "Wikipedia purists" to protect the article.
• A January 25, 2007, entry on the U.S. political blog Wonkette reported on efforts by employees of the National Institute on Drug Abuse to sanitize the article on the agency, and then suggested readers retaliate by adding salacious and negative information about NIDA. Some vandalism along those lines, including bogus sources, did result but the article was not protected.^[16] As well as inciting vandalism of wikipedia, Wonkette is also amused by vandalism of Eagle Forum's wiki conservapedia.^[17]
• On 2007-03-22, NBC Nightly News showed correspondent Lisa Daniels vandalised the article about herself.

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