Wounding Wikipedia

The Gotham Gal was at a dinner party this past week with a bunch of smart people we know and the discussion turned to Wikipedia.  A comment was made that 50% of Wikipedia is wrong.

Talk about wrong.  100% of that comment is wrong.

The truth is that >95%+ of Wikipedia is true and there are thousands of people who make it their business every day to make that number go higher and higher. The BBC recently published a study by British academics that backed up the accuracy of Wikipedia.

But there are some concerns for sure.  I spent time on Wikipedia doing research on Heather Wilson prior to posting my thoughts on her.  I had to pause and wonder if what I was reading was true.

Because the NY Times had a piece in the editorial section about senate and congressional staffers editing out parts of Wikipedia entries on their bosses today.  That is so uncool. 

Tom Harkin, Norm Coleman, Dianne Feinstein, and Joe Biden’s entries were mentioned as examples of entries that had seen mysterious edits of embarassing items.

Well those politicians just went down one more notch in my opinion of them.  If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.  The truth may hurt, but if its the truth, it should not be edited out of Wikipedia.

UPDATE:  The 95% number I use in this post is based on my personal experience.  If you read the comments, there are people who think that’s too high.  One commenter says "I liken it more to 80/15/5 accurate/not quite right/incorrect". Whatever the number, its not 50% by a long shot.