WIKIFUSION AND NEW MEDIA

Today's New York Times had an article about John Seigenthaler Sr., who was the subject of a Wikipedia entry that said he was implicated in the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy. Mr. Seigenthaler has denied this. The interesting thing is that Mr. Seigenthaler did not merely go on to Wikipedia and correct the entry. He threatened to sue, and wrote about the error everywhere BUT Wikipedia.

This was lucky for all of us who blog, because I had never heard this before. I did not know that John Seigenthaler, Jr. on NBC had a famous Dad. Now I do. Now I have restated the allegation that has since been REMOVED from Wikipedia. In other words, Mr. Seigenthaler, Sr. propagated a story that most of the world would never have known or cared about. Now it is in the New York Times. Good job, Seigenthaler.

Apparently he didn't realize that he could have simply changed the wiki himself. There are other issues on Wikipedia where people disagree. Wikipedia has a means to address the issue. Even if Seigenthaler's "biographer" would have switched it back, he could have fixed it again.

By the way, one of Seigenthaler's issues is that Wikipedia is not a reliable or responsible place for research. Duh.