Someone -- it's your guess -- altered Sarah Palin's Wikipedia entry some 24 hours before the announcement that she was to be John McCain's choice as running mate, making, as a Wiki editor had it, "mostly favorable changes." NPR had a brief report about the raid on Wiki yesterday evening.
NPR: Here are the facts of the case. Starting at 8:10 in the morning on Thursday, someone started making changes -- lots of them! -- to Sarah Palin's page. The changes, all from a single source, included the addition of a quotation calling Palin "a politician of eye-popping integrity." The edits diminished a reference to Palin's participation in a beauty pagent, and minimized the section about a controversy in which Palin used her influence to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. Wikipedia normally allows anyone to edit its pages so long as the result is considered neutral. But in this case Justin Deal, the editor, decided to blow the whistle.
Justin Deal: 24 hours before she became the nominee for vice president of the US on the Republican ticket, someone spent hours essentially rewriting the article in a way that, I think, comes across better in many ways but in some cases much more favorable than it did just 24 hours before.
NPR: Since then, a Wikipedia administrator restricted who could alter her page.
Justin Deal: I dug a little deeper and then it became clear that this account had only ever been used to make these significant changes to a single article on a single candidate. In Wikipedia, that's usually perceived as a red flag.
NPR: The person making the changes seems to know a great deal about Palin's life, including that her family sometimes woke up at 3 a.m. to hunt moose. But right now not much is known abouto the identity of the person making the changes except that they used the screen name, "Young Trig." Trig is the name of Palin's infant son. Although, Deal says he doesn't know what to make of that! The McCain campaign did not return calls requesting comment about the changes. Of course, burnishing online profiles is very common, especially in politics. Two years ago, Wikipedia shut off Capitol Hill's access to editing functions after staffers started tweaking their bosses' pages. Also, President George W. Bush's entry is indefinitely protected except from elite Wikipedia editors. In Palin's case, Deal says, it's good the changes were caught early.
Justin Deal: If you Google for Sarah Palin, which is what millions of Americans will be doing today, the first thing you find is her Wikipedia entry.
NPR: Passions run high in politics and it's not unusual for people to fight for years over a simple phrase in an article on a controversial topic like abortion or evolution. Part of the problem, and maybe the appeal, is that anyone can submit suggestions on Wikipedia articles. Volunteer editors help referee the disputes and, Deal points out, according to the rules of this open editorial model, directly making changes on yourself or someone you're close to is a no-no.
Justin Deal: You should not edit an article if you potentially have a conflict of interest.
NPR: For the record, Deal considers himself not eligible to edit Palin's page because he's written personal blogs saying McCain should pick her as his running mate.
