NYTimes And FOX: Both Sources Of Wikipedia Tampering

It seems every few days Wikipedia manages to make the news in one way or another. In various instances it’s being crowned a next-generation resource with an incredible wealth of reliable information, some of which simply cannot and will never be found within the bounds of publications such as the OED or the Encyclopedia Brittanica. In others, it’s being scrubbed for fraud and misuse due to revelations of edits made by public personas and institutions (some quite influential) to entries on the website concerning said personas and institutions.

The latest developments to do with the more controversial side of Wikipedia are a particularly interesting. One involves Fox News, in which an IP address at the network was pinpointed as being the source of edits to entries about three of the network’s strongest voices: Brit Hume, Chris Wallace, and Bill O’Reilly. The other targets The New York Times as the place from which pieces about The Wall Street Journal and US Representative Tom DeLay had been altered.

The NYT and Fox News being polar opposites in their political leanings, this makes for a rather compelling bit of news. One is highly respected, one less so, but both lay claim to certain portions of the American populace. The fact that the two have been caught with their respective hands in the cookie jar – granted, thus far it’s not been proven that these series of edits have not been more than isolated incidents by “rogue” individuals made without the official approval of either media organization - makes one wonder whether two bads made on opposite sides of the aisle cancel one another out or that the revelations diminish the reputations of both. Of course, if I’m blunt about it, Fox News hasn’t a reputation of positive note anyway, this development will likely do no harm to the business.

From what I gather (with no less than some good ol’ common sense), the NYT stands upon a much, much higher and much more esteemed ledge to fall from than its nemesis. And, if we’re frank about things, the edits made from within the Fox News network seem, well, run of the mill, really.

If the story becomes more than a minor irritant to the NYT, the paper will undoubtedly face much greater criticism from all angles. Furthermore, The Times cannot weed out the stray editor of said posts and remove him/her from the company even if it wished to do so. Quite the conundrum.

According to a statement by Abbe Serphos, director of public relations the NYT, made to CNET News, “The IP address listed is our external IP address for all Internet browsing. Therefore, we cannot tell who may have made a posting to the site.”

Either these stories get swept beneath the rug quickly, or slowly and steadily fester into things which require much closer attention. While an investigation into the root of these issues would no doubt be the correct path to take, I cannot see these bits, however interesting, remaining a gripping emergence for long.