nd on that note - here's Durova being interviewd by Knoxville Press last August - giving false information that destroyed a man's career. Yes, Durova is a true victim's victim. wacko.gif

HERE IS HOW DUROVA LIBELS

Entries on Wikipedia edited by Davis aide
Press secretary also admits deleting info on brother via federal computer

By Tom Humphrey (Contact)
Saturday, August 11, 2007


U.S. Rep. David Davis’ press secretary has acknowledged using a congressional office computer to delete unflattering information about his boss and his brother from biographies on an Internet encyclopedia. (The guy actually removed cruft from radical pro-lifers - Durova didn't bother to read it, duh!)

The efforts of T----- H---have been deemed “blanking vandalism” by an editor for Wikipedia who detected the alterations to articles about Davis and state Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Jonesboro. The state Democratic Party also criticizes the changes.

Hill said in an interview that he made a mistake that would not be repeated. He said he was not familiar with Wikipedia and its procedures and was simply trying to perform his job.

“My job is to make sure statements about my boss are truthful and, sometimes, as positive as possible,” he said. “That’s what I do.”

H--- said he regularly searches the Internet for references to Davis, a freshman Republican from Johnson City. When he came across the Wikipedia entry on the congressman, Hill said some of the information struck him as “inaccurate” and “trying to hurt my boss.”

“I tried to take it out (information he considered inaccurate) and replace it with accurate stuff,” he said.

His efforts were detected by a Wikipedia administrator who restored the text to its former version and later reported on the episode in an article for another Web site. (Guess which Wikipedia Administrator?)

The changes to entries about Davis and Matthew Hill were made in June.

Part of the information Hill sought to delete involved political contributions to both his brother and Davis by former King Pharmaceuticals CEO John Gregory as well as other ties to the Gregory family.

“It wasn’t anything that was intended to be destructive or disruptive,” Hill said of his efforts. “What took place was just simply a misunderstanding of how to edit the site.”

A Wikipedia spokesman confirmed the article had been written by one of its volunteer administrator/editors, who uses the pen name Durova. In a telephone interview, she identified herself as Lise Broer of San Diego. Her full article may be found at http://www/searchengineland.com/070717-113550.php.

Broer said Wikipedia has paid particular attention to submissions from congressional office computers since a “scandal” in 2006 over revisions to biographies of several members of Congress. In general, the revisions would delete negative information, such as broken campaign promises, and replace it with more favorable information. (Ok, that happened in 2006, but that's not what TH did, and Durova made a false allegation. And published it. And took interviews on the topic.)

Davis took office in January. Hill came to Washington with Davis.

Broer said “vandalism” occurs when someone deletes information from a Wikipedia article that has been properly attributed, providing the sources of the statement or documents.

Under Wikipedia procedures, if a person deems a statement unfair or inaccurate, he or she should contact the Web site and present his or her case.

Wade Munday, spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic Party, said the situation “calls the judgment of Congressman Davis and his staff into question about what is the appropriate and inappropriate use of their time as public servants.”

Munday said it would be appropriate for a political campaign, following Wikipedia procedures, to challenge information deemed incorrect on a Web site entry. Many campaigns do so, he said.

But he said it was inappropriate for “a staffer on a federal payroll” and using the U.S. House computer system to do so.

Hill said that, had he understood Wikipedia rules, he would probably have logged in as required and sought to make revisions from his home computer.

When initially contacted about the attempts to revise the Davis and Rep. Hill biographies, Hill told the News Sentinel he was not personally responsible. But he called a reporter back later to say he had spoken off the cuff on his cell phone in the midst of a hectic event involving the congressman and “miscommunicated.”

He had, indeed, made the revisions, Hill said, and “I apologize for the confusion.”

Tom Humphrey may be reached at 615-242-7782.

For no good reason other than that this woman decided to write about his removal of cruft from his brother and boss's bios - both written by the same person - who was the real vandal. Gosh.

And she got caught libelling again, and it got into the press, and she was forced to resign her Admin powers, before getting kicked off.