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Wikipedia under the microscope

By Derek Sooman

On February 13, 2006, 5:01 PM

Wikipedia is coming under the spotlight over the accuracy of its entries. Now one of the world’s greatest online co-operating ventures, questions of accuracy have plagued the online encyclopaedia. There are concerns with the ease with which Wikipedia's entries can be manipulated (I myself was initially somewhat shocked to discover that I could edit pages and make all sorts of changes pretty much by clicking a button!), and recently US politicians were caught altering their profiles to make them more flattering.

Alarm bells rang last month when newspapers in Massachusetts discovered that the staff of Congressman Marty Meehan had polished his biography by, for instance, deleting his long-abandoned promise to serve only four terms and praising his "fiscally responsible" voting record.

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  1. February 13, 2006 5:57 PM
    blue_dragon said:
    yea..this is the reson my ap euro teacher didnt allow me to use this as a good source of research D:
    Reply
  2. February 13, 2006 7:05 PM
    cyrax said:
    i suppose this was inevitable. though i must say its a grat resource.
    Reply
  3. February 13, 2006 7:44 PM
    jmag034 said:
    All im gonna say is I love wikipedia and most of their entries are accurate.
    Reply
  4. February 14, 2006 12:40 AM
    Nodsu said:
    Wikipedia definitely needs to shape up when it comes to accuracy and coherency. I have seen articles that state something in one paragraph and then exactly the opposite in another. Blatant advertising/glorification is not that much of a problem for me. Usually the "doctored" bits are so obvious that I skip the BS paragraphs automatically. Of course, many people take texts on the internet as the absolute truth and can't have that luxury.
    Reply

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