BBC's 'anonymous' Wikipedia edits

[Teddy Bear]

This story is priceless.

A computer researcher has devised a way of tracking changes made to Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit, to expose organisations and individuals who tweak and airbrush their own entries.

The sleuthing tool allows Wikipedia users to trace the source of millions of changes to entries on the popular website, even those done anonymously.

So far the Wikipedia Scanner has unearthed a host of entry fiddling by organisations ranging from the CIA and the Labour Party to WalMart and the Mormon church.

So the gleeful BBC covers the story that show one or more people with access to computers in the CIA have edited various entries there. However, before writing the article the author didn't check on whether any BBC employees had done anything similar. But various bloggers did, and found some 7000 edits by them, which caused some red faces at the BBC, ;D and the need to revise their original article to include the sentence at the end "BBC News website users contacted the corporation to point out that the tool also revealed that people inside the BBC had made edits to Wikipedia pages. "

Among the edits made by somebody on a BBC computer included changing the word 'terrorist' to freedom fighter, as well as another altering President Bush's middle name from Walker to Wanker, and another on Tony Blair.

Their 'Editors Blog' today has them choking explaining how such things can happen and doing their best as usual to talk their way out of it.

I wonder if it occurs to these editors how much more they are needing to 'explain' their way out of things these days.

[ascendinglark]

OK, I know this is childish, but:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[Teddy Bear]

Hey AL, after enduring this I figure you've earned a good belly laugh.

[Teddy Bear]

Steevo, I think you confused Channel 4 with the BBC in this post, so I moved it here. The IP addresses of the Beeb are useful though.

steevo said:

Politicians' Wikipedia shame....using the wonderfully impartial wikiscanner for IP addresses. Nothing damning, just kinda derogatory in typical elitist reporting. To their credit of course they do leave a minor blurb about Labour's modest efforts.

Funny what happens when using wikiscanner checking the BBC. Exactly 100 different IP addresses, and they trounce the lowly Tories! As an organization they've seemingly edited more than anyone tho in fact not all the addresses are from them, but almost.

A Mother's load.

[steevo]

Yes I did Teddy, all this time I thought they were BBC