Can you trust Wikipedia?
December 4, 2005 · Filed Under Cyber Slip-Ups, Ethics and Credibility, Legal issues, Social Media
The debate over the reliability of Wikipedia has been renewed, after John Seigenthaler Sr., a former editor of The Tennessean in Nashville, read in his biography on Wikipedia that he “was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John and his brother Bobby.”
The debate over the reliability of Wikipedia has been renewed, after John Seigenthaler Sr., a former editor of The Tennessean in Nashville, read in his biography on Wikipedia that he “was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John and his brother Bobby.”
He wrote an op-ed in USA Today criticizing Wikipedia last week.
Mr. Seigenthaler, after discovering that he had been defamed, found that his “biographer” was anonymous. He learned that the writer was a customer of BellSouth Internet, but that federal privacy laws shield the identity of Internet customers, even if they disseminate defamatory material. And the laws protect online corporations from libel suits.
He could have filed a lawsuit against BellSouth, he wrote, but only a subpoena would compel BellSouth to reveal the name.
In the end, Mr. Seigenthaler decided against going to court, instead alerting the public, through his article, “that Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool.”
Related: Internet IQ Checklist for Journalists
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