Full Version: Top 10 Wikipedia factual blunders - Vancouver Sun
<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />Top 10 [b]Wikipedia factual blunders[/b]
Vancouver Sun
It's estimated there are 100000 'sabotaged' pages on Wikipedia — which means the chances of coming across false information is one in 70. Most universities do not allow Wikipedia as a source. Here are 10 of the more noteworthy Wikipedia mistakes of the ...
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QUOTE(Newsfeed @ Wed 17th August 2011, 4:51pm) 
Top 10 Wikipedia factual blunders
Vancouver Sun
It's estimated there are 100000 'sabotaged' pages on Wikipedia — which means the chances of coming across false information is one in 70. Most universities do not allow Wikipedia as a source. Here are 10 of the more noteworthy Wikipedia mistakes of the ...
and more »
My newsreader won't let me read the Vancouver Sun (I think it geeked at about the 15th advertisment).
Would somebody like to re-post the list of these? And please tell me that the lazy Sun didn't use Wikipedia's own list of its past blunders as a source for this list of Wikipedia errors....
Noooooooos.
Top 10 Wikipedia factual blunders
It’s estimated (huh?) there are 100,000 ‘sabotaged’ pages on Wikipedia — which means the chances of coming across false information is one in 70. Most universities do not allow Wikipedia as a source. Here are 10 of the more noteworthy Wikipedia mistakes of the past.
* Borat, the fictional character created by Sacha Baron Cohen, was named as the president of Kazakhstan.
* Malicious anti-fans killed off singer Miley Cyrus in a fictional car crash in 2008.
* For a time, David Beckham was described as an 18th century Chinese goalkeeper.
(Lord Jesus, do I really need to keep doing this? They parcel out each "blunder" with a photograph.)
* George W. Bush is said to have had his page changed 40,000 times after users kept posting false claims
* In 2006, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s 19-page Wikipedia entry was being hacked at least 25 times a day. His entry said that as a teenager he had posters of Adolf Hitler on his bedroom wall and accused him of starting a “false†war against Saddam Hussein. One saboteur changed the same sentence in Blair’s entry on an almost daily basis to accuse him of setting out to “destroy†civil service neutrality. His middle name was also changed to Whoop-dee-do.
* When Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama’s superstar supporter, launched into his song Born To Run at the Super Bowl’s halftime show, his Wikipedia entry that day read, simply: ‘Bruce Springsteen. This guy kinda sucks.’ Later, visitors to the page were given a little more to go on: ‘Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born, September 23, 1949), nicknamed — “The Boss†is a FAG.’ Anyone who then pressed the ‘refresh’ button on their computer found the entire entry was translated into Japanese.
* When actor-comedian Norman Wisdom died in October 2010 at the age of 95, two quality British newspapers mentioned in their obituaries that he wrote the lyrics of the popular song There'll be blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover. He didn’t, but his Wikipedia entry said he did.
* After Senator Ted Kennedy left President Barack Obama’s inauguration lunch in an ambulance, having had a seizure, Wikipedia stated that he had died — even though he was still alive.
* John Seigenthaler was Robert Kenendy's administrative assistant in the 1960s and former editorial page editor of USA Today. Wikipedia said in his 'biography' that "for a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven". Wikipedia said further, without substantiation, that Seigenthaler moved to the Soviet Union in 1971 and returned to the US 13 years later. All fiction of course, inserted by a character assassin who took Wikipedia's invitation to contribute to this open encyclopedia.
* Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales didn't know he liked to play chess until he read it on the online encyclopedia he helped to create. In 2005, he was criticized for editing his own biography page on Wikipedia, apparently (Why was this "apparently", Sun? It was actually quite visibly certain.) removing references to Larry Sanger as co-founder of the website.
Another bullshit "mainstream media" story, far below the actual credible investigative journalism being done on that Examiner blog.
It’s estimated (huh?) there are 100,000 ‘sabotaged’ pages on Wikipedia — which means the chances of coming across false information is one in 70. Most universities do not allow Wikipedia as a source. Here are 10 of the more noteworthy Wikipedia mistakes of the past.
* Borat, the fictional character created by Sacha Baron Cohen, was named as the president of Kazakhstan.
* Malicious anti-fans killed off singer Miley Cyrus in a fictional car crash in 2008.
* For a time, David Beckham was described as an 18th century Chinese goalkeeper.
(Lord Jesus, do I really need to keep doing this? They parcel out each "blunder" with a photograph.)
* George W. Bush is said to have had his page changed 40,000 times after users kept posting false claims
* In 2006, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s 19-page Wikipedia entry was being hacked at least 25 times a day. His entry said that as a teenager he had posters of Adolf Hitler on his bedroom wall and accused him of starting a “false†war against Saddam Hussein. One saboteur changed the same sentence in Blair’s entry on an almost daily basis to accuse him of setting out to “destroy†civil service neutrality. His middle name was also changed to Whoop-dee-do.
* When Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama’s superstar supporter, launched into his song Born To Run at the Super Bowl’s halftime show, his Wikipedia entry that day read, simply: ‘Bruce Springsteen. This guy kinda sucks.’ Later, visitors to the page were given a little more to go on: ‘Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born, September 23, 1949), nicknamed — “The Boss†is a FAG.’ Anyone who then pressed the ‘refresh’ button on their computer found the entire entry was translated into Japanese.
* When actor-comedian Norman Wisdom died in October 2010 at the age of 95, two quality British newspapers mentioned in their obituaries that he wrote the lyrics of the popular song There'll be blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover. He didn’t, but his Wikipedia entry said he did.
* After Senator Ted Kennedy left President Barack Obama’s inauguration lunch in an ambulance, having had a seizure, Wikipedia stated that he had died — even though he was still alive.
* John Seigenthaler was Robert Kenendy's administrative assistant in the 1960s and former editorial page editor of USA Today. Wikipedia said in his 'biography' that "for a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven". Wikipedia said further, without substantiation, that Seigenthaler moved to the Soviet Union in 1971 and returned to the US 13 years later. All fiction of course, inserted by a character assassin who took Wikipedia's invitation to contribute to this open encyclopedia.
* Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales didn't know he liked to play chess until he read it on the online encyclopedia he helped to create. In 2005, he was criticized for editing his own biography page on Wikipedia, apparently (Why was this "apparently", Sun? It was actually quite visibly certain.) removing references to Larry Sanger as co-founder of the website.
Another bullshit "mainstream media" story, far below the actual credible investigative journalism being done on that Examiner blog.
<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />Top 10 [b]Wikipedia factual blunders[/b]
Calgary Herald
It's estimated there are 100000 'sabotaged' pages on Wikipedia — which means the chances of coming across false information is one in 70. Most universities do not allow Wikipedia as a source. Here are 10 of the more noteworthy Wikipedia mistakes of the ...
View the article
<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />Top 10 [b]Wikipedia factual blunders[/b]
Edmonton Journal (blogs) (blog)
It's estimated there are 100000 'sabotaged' pages on Wikipedia — which means the chances of coming across false information is one in 70. Most universities do not allow Wikipedia as a source. Here are 10 of the more noteworthy Wikipedia mistakes of the ...
View the article
<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />Top 10 [b]Wikipedia factual blunders[/b]
Edmonton Journal
It's estimated there are 100000 'sabotaged' pages on Wikipedia — which means the chances of coming across false information is one in 70. Most universities do not allow Wikipedia as a source. Here are 10 of the more noteworthy Wikipedia mistakes of the ...
View the article
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