Wikipedia Entries 'Cleaned' By Political Staffers

Slashdot:

“According to the Lowell Sun, U.S. Rep Marty Meehan's staff has been heavily editing his Wikipedia bio, among other things removing criticisms. In total, more than one thousand Wikipedia edits in various articles have been traced back to congressional staffers at the U.S. House of Representatives in the past six months.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

This Slashdot post prompted a check of the history of the Wikipedia biography for Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX). No evidence of partisan revision going on, but something else in the edit history did catch my eye. Check out the edits made from IP address 24.1.10.xxx (disguised here, but not in Wikipedia's history log). Four articles have been edited from that IP.

• The Sam Johnson biography itself.
• A biography of Robert Edward Johnson, who is Sam Johnson's opponent in the upcoming Republican primary.
• A biography of a Florida Congressman who was opposed by Robert Edward Johnson in a Florida election.
• and ... drum roll ... an article on "Human penis size".

I don't know what computer that IP address is assigned to or even whether all edits were made by the same person. In fact, I have no idea what this all means, but I sure hope it's not a sign of the issues we can expect to be raised in the upcoming primary election campaign. ;-)