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Fox News — Busted |
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Thanks to Geeks are Sexy for doing the research.
Due to a new tool developed by Cal Tech grad student Virgil Griffith, you can now find out exactly who is making edits on Wikipedia. While this news is not very exciting on its own, the fact that Fox News has made dozens of edits for their own benefit, deserves further attention.
From Geeks are Sexy:
So we went ahead and took a look at other changes to Wikipedia allegedly made by the people from the Fox News offices - the changes originating from IP address “12.167.224.228“. (Here’s the DNS lookup for 12.167.224.228.) We’ve done the legwork of poring through all the edits and published a comprehensive list below, omitting corrections of minor errors and clarifications of fact, i.e., the innocuous. The following below are clearly anything but, however.
The site has a decent list put together, but I’ll just highlight a few of my favorites.
They changed:
O’Reilly’s show, â€Â[[The O’Reilly Factor]]â€Â, airs on the Fox News Channel at the same time as Olbermann’s show on MSNBC, garnering ratings six times higher than Olbermann’s.
To:
O’Reilly’s show, â€Â[[The O’Reilly Factor]]â€Â, airs on the Fox News Channel at the same time as Olbermann’s show on MSNBC, garnering ratings ten times higher than Olbermann’s.
In quarter one of 2007, it looks like O’Reilly’s ratings were just three times higher (.pdf) than Olbermann’s. Ironically, they are also three times older.
They changed:
Some conservatives feel that Olbermann’s reporting carries a liberal bias.
To:
Conservatives feel that Olbermann’s reporting carries a liberal bias.
Are they really trying to imply that all conservatives feel that Olbermann’s reporting carries a liberal bias?
They changed:
Many groups and commentators, including [[Media Matters for America]], and liberal broadcasters [[Al Franken]], and [[Keith Olbermann]], have claimed that Hume distorted Roosevelt’s views.
To:
Many groups and commentators, including [[Media Matters for America]], and liberal broadcasters [[Al Franken]], and [[Keith Olbermann]], have claimed that Hume distorted Roosevelt’s views in an attempt to ride Mr. Hume’s coat tails in the ratings race as Mr. Hume hosts the highest rated political program on cable television.
Wow, they really nailed this one. I’m sure that Media Matters, Keith Olbermann, and Al Franken are trying to “ride on the coat tails” of Brit Hume. I guess that would explain why they all consistently dispute the filth pushed by Hume and his crew.
This is just another chapter in the story of Fox’s journalistic shortcomings and shady practices. When will their highly partisan and largely senile target audience begin to catch on? Until next time, just remember: Fox Reports, We Decide.
I guess this is a victory for wikipedia, right? Seems some people who clearly don’t know how to use the Internet are watching.
Exactly. The most amazing thing in this is not that Fox would do it, but that they actually thought they would get away with it.
Linkjacked! Attributing the original author does not release you from liability for copyright violations.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
Hey RV: First of all, welcome to the Internet. I really hope you enjoy your stay.
Linkjacking is generally understood to mean stealing someone’s content without either a) giving them credit or b) adding anything to it. What I did is called “hyperlinking”, there is a subtle difference.
You may have noticed a few things in the original post.
1) I gave credit and linked to Geeks are Sexy, 3 times. Hell I even thanked them for doing the research.
2) I editorialized and added content. It isn’t as if I just stole their content.
Bloggers love to hyperlink, it helps to build a conversation around interesting topics. As you spend some more time around the web, you’ll notice bloggers link to each other and quote each other all the time.
And yes, I am definitely going to get sued for linking to someone and quoting their content. I await the day I am served with papers for this so I can quote the lawsuit on a blog and complete the cycle.
@Josh: Cheers mate! May you blog a long time and never need to talk to a lawyer about it.
I find it unfortunate that the real story is not being told here.
And it is strictly my opinion that the real story would be that the CIA and Congress are doing this also.
That action on their part is far more dangerous than anything Fox could do to this country.
Hmm…
I don’t see it as dangerous per se, just silly. There is really little harm in editing wikipedia. People can usually spot stupid or biased edits, and nobody should take what wikipedia says as 100% fact. Though I am concerned that the CIA and others are spending their time (and by extension, my money) doing silly things like this.
Well I guess we should be concerned when the CIA gets silly. I can gather that wikipedia is not the last word, but if so whats the big deal ?
Now when an agency purposly doctors a story during a presidential election like CBS and Dan Rather, that is disgusting
Wow Wiki pwned fox out the window into incoming traffic and out the door! they cant dodge this! thinking they could get away making them selfs look smug, rofl Owned.