Democrats Use Fake Wikipedia To Attack McCain
Posted on May 19, 2008
-By Warner Todd Huston
Wikipedia imagines itself as the voice of the people, a voice that ultimately will find truth restored to public information and education. One wonders how the creators of Wikipedia would take the misuse of their signature idea when partisan political parties make a fake “Wiki” solely to attack their political opponent? This is exactly what the Democrat Party has done with a fake Wiki created to act as an attack platform against John McCain. Worse, this effort isn’t even a real Wiki because the pages cannot be altered by registrants like a true Wiki can.
Many are already aware of the bashing that the official and original creation of Wikipedia has taken from many quarters. Wikiepedia, the “biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet,” can be altered by any registered visitor and is supposed to dynamically represent the combined knowledge of many millions of people instead of the canned scholarship of a select few. Unfortunately, the fact that it is so easily alterable by just anyone who happens upon the site, the veracity of the entries can be highly suspect. But, in essence, it is supposed to offer the possibility that truth will out in the long run.
Naturally, the Democrat Party “Wiki” has such untruths as making the claim that “McCain Said US May Stay In Iraq For 100 Years,” making it seem as if McCain was advocating for war in Iraq to continue for 100 years, so with that sort of “truth” presented, it won’t be much to expect facts to be included in this “Wiki.”
Still, the usage of the Wikipedia idea to act specifically to present propaganda is quite a slap in the face to those who created Wikipedia, isn’t it? But, perhaps they won’t mind if the propaganda site fits their OWN political bent, eh? After all, for most leftists, the ends always justify the means. Morality is fungible.
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It maybe a slap to the face of the creators of Wiki, but I find it to be pretty imaginative. I’m not saying I agree with the sites content (even thought I will not be voting for McCain).
Hey, the propaganda war needs to be conducted. As much as we “don’t like it”, I can think of a few “conservative” sites that will be doing the same to Obama.
Go after his charactor and his “friends”. Sound filmilar?
I imagine wikipedians feel much as the average car driver feels when a get-away car is used in a bank robbery: it’s not a good thing, but it has little of nothing to do with us.
Your conflation of wiki and wikipedia demonstrates only your limited grasp of the facts at your disposal, and says little about either subject.
I imagine reading Smith’s comments is like suffering through someone trying to talk about the symphony while at a rock concert. Yeah it’s all music but it sure misses the point. Try and keep up Smithy. It ain’t that hard.
Note that anyone can set up a site using the same software. The software’s called MediaWiki, you can get it from http://www.mediawiki.org/ . The default “skin”, Monobook, is the same one Wikipedia uses by default, so sites will look a lot like Wikipedia out of the box. It’s also used a lot for office intranet wikis (e.g. I set one up at work). For anyone who has a use for massively multiplayer online Notepad
p.s.: Here’s a list of English-language sites using MediaWiki. That list is far from complete.
If conservatives can have a conservapedia, why shouldn’t the liberal be allowed to create their own wiki?
Wikipedia did not invent the idea of the wiki so it cannot be an affront to them (wikiwikiweb is widely cited as the fist wiki site). But I guess if you did your research, you would not be writing on this site.
There is a difference between a wiki (an open-content online software platform) and Wikipedia (a specific implementation of wiki software designed for use as an encyclopedia). MediaWiki (which Wikipedia uses) and other wiki platforms are usually free and open-source, so anyone can set one up (and many already have, from young-earth creationists to quantum theorists). There is no such thing as a “fake wiki”, and the only way the Dems could have set up a “fake Wikipedia” on McCain is if they set up a wiki using the Wikipedia logo and look, which they clearly have not done.