There’s a story on CNN right now, as I write this piece, about Wikipedia publishing an article, which is not true.
John Seigenthaler is acused of being blamed for the assesination of JFK.
Problem that CNN doesn’t see (as well as John), is that if the wrong article was published in the normal, big 20+ volume “Bolshaja Sovetskaja Enciklopedia” (The Big Soviet Encyclopedia, he would never get a change in the article. Perhaps he may have got a “correction” piece of paper, stuck in a volume of the printed edition, which will be published six years after the original.
What Wikipedia gives to the readers, is that its articles can always be changed. And people can then even go and see how these articles were changed.
Jimmy Wales, the founder of wikipedia.com also doesn’t realize this little difference, and seems to be excusing himself. There’s no need to beg for pardon. What there’s need for is enough funding for Wikipedia so that it will turn into a reliable source of information. Actually with the right funding it indeed may become THE source.
I’ve read so much garbage about myself, that such stories do not make sense anymore. There’s no way to control the information on the Internet, and the only way to protect yourself is by publishing your own web site and your own blog. Whether we like it or not, is a differenc question.
