Posted on 02/09/2006 11:57:14 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Washington -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office acknowledged today that a former staff member had removed references to the California Democrat's net worth on the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, as well as altered entries about her husband Richard Blum's Chinese investments in 1997.
A former staff member "independently went on to Wikipedia to correct some material he felt was not appropriate," said Feinstein spokesman Howard Gantman. "The senator was not even aware of it."
The changes to the biographies of members of Congress, allegedly by their staffs, have again raised questions about the credibility of the online encyclopedia that has become an authoritative source for millions of Internet users.
The disclosure by Feinstein's office today was the latest admission from a handful of senators' offices that staff members had been beautifying their bosses' biographies on Wikipedia.
Gantman said the changes to Feinstein's bio had been made by a former staff member in May and June of last year. The former staff member, whose name Gantman wouldn't release, had also added to Feinstein's list of awards and corrected an error on the Web site.
Gantman said that Feinstein's office policy has been changed to ensure that future changes to Feinstein's biography be made through an official notice to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia operates as an "open source" information site that anyone can add to or edit -- viewed as a strength and a weakness of the site that Hitwise tracked as the second-most visited Internet reference site after Dictionary.com. The idea is that self-policing in that its users will find and correct inaccuracies, continually improving the content.
After biased edits were discovered on the biography of Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., an investigation by the Wikipedia Foundation's Wikinews traced public edits from all House and Senate internet protocol addresses.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
LOL...liberally really hate the truth being known...but the size of the rocks they hide under is shrinking.
The net worth deletion has already been undone.
Singing lady's getting fatter.
Some things just can't be beautified. Pelosi comes to mind.
It mentions the comment and provides links to discussions of the whole story. In essence, his wording was easy to misconstrue. He did say "creating" and not "invent," and he was the first legislator to push for funding for the technology that would become the Internet. IOW, his legislative actions led to the creation of the Internet. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn (the two people most responsible for the actual inventing of the Internet) agree his statement is true.
Not that I like Gore, but it's not necessary to falsely bash him when there is plenty of true stuff to bash him for, even in the area of computers with his hatred of private encryption.
Funny, but that would be vandalism and make the poster no better than Feinstein (does anyone actually believe it was just a lowly staffer acting independently?).
Changed his name? Richard Blum is her third husband. They met in 1978 when he was head of Moscone's fiscal advisory committee. (Husband #1: Jack Berman--one child, marriage dissolved. Husband #2: Dr. Bertram Feinstein--died April 1978)
seems strange for her to have a house that is literally in one of SFs most famous tourists spots (steps at pacific heights)
The third one.
But did he?
He changed his name before he married her? Pre-1978?
What was his name before?
You can do that when you get a 6 Billion dollar no bid contract from Uncle Sam for your "think-tank"
I know what Feinstein's "worth" is: less.
Someone's GOT to add the photo of him demonstrating gun safety...
...staff members had been beautifying their bosses' biographies...
Some things just can't be beautified. Pelosi comes to mind.
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lol.. thanks, now I know what it feels like when soup comes out my nose (and 2pac when she speaks the truth, which is rare).. ouch.
"Wow, they've been all over the place over there. Harkin, Feinstein, Coleman..."
I read it. They need to block government IP addresses from updating their site. Too funny.
Wikipedia is to knowledge as the DNC is to sanity.
Note that records are kept of updates and the IP addresses of those who make changes. People who make nuisances of themselves can be banned, and oft defaced articles can be locked.
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