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Line 107: − − ===Jimbo Wales reiterates extremist charges===
→Brandt / Berlet feud: sounds harsh, but that is what happened.
Berlet stated, "This complaint was written by Daniel Brandt,"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Cberlet/Archive_2005-06_2005-08#Red-baiting_Lie_Article.21</ref> and a Daniel Brandt entry on Wikipedia soon was created. Brandt describes himself as an "accountability activist"<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/04/your_take_roundupbelievers_neg.html Believers, Negativists Debate Wikipedia’s Trustworthiness], by Mark Glaser, 20 April 2006. Retrieved from pbs.org October 29, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Brandt Wikiquote/Daniel Brandt#Sourced]</ref> and claims he originally began working with Wikipedia editors in good faith during October 2005 but any biographical information he revealed was spun against him to depict him in a negative light. Brandt states,
Berlet stated, "This complaint was written by Daniel Brandt,"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Cberlet/Archive_2005-06_2005-08#Red-baiting_Lie_Article.21</ref> and a Daniel Brandt entry on Wikipedia soon was created. Brandt describes himself as an "accountability activist"<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/04/your_take_roundupbelievers_neg.html Believers, Negativists Debate Wikipedia’s Trustworthiness], by Mark Glaser, 20 April 2006. Retrieved from pbs.org October 29, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Brandt Wikiquote/Daniel Brandt#Sourced]</ref> and claims he originally began working with Wikipedia editors in good faith during October 2005 but any biographical information he revealed was spun against him to depict him in a negative light. Brandt states,
{{Cquote|I soon realized that it was also about Berlet, who was still bent on undermining me. Berlet was using Wikipedia as part of his political agenda, and he was successful in this.<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=5641&pid=21441&mode=threaded&show=&st=0&#entry21441</ref>}}
{{Cquote|I soon realized that it was also about Berlet, who was still bent on undermining me. Berlet was using Wikipedia as part of his political agenda, and he was successful in this.<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=5641&pid=21441&mode=threaded&show=&st=0&#entry21441</ref>}}
Berlet's biography underwent an extensive revision with most of the substantive NPOV criticism cut out. The revising editor commented, "I kept Daniel Brandt, not because I feel he's a credible source, but because there's so little published criticism of Berlet, that I felt I had to retain something."<ref>Chip Berlet/Talk, SlimVirgin 00:19, 7 January 2005.</ref> This is an extraordinary statement, coming from the same author of several of Wikipedia's core content and citation policies, including '''Wikipedia:Reliable Sources''' and '''Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons.''' ('''BLP''') (Incidentally, contrary to popular belief, WP:BLP did not come into being because of the [[Siegenthaler scandal]], but rather over the Brandt controversy, as the editor who started the page noted in an edit summary<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3ABiographies_of_living_persons&diff=31947681&oldid=31753956</ref>). Brandt remarked, "I soon discovered that she had slimed me in defense of Chip Berlet several months earlier."<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=5641&pid=21441&mode=threaded&show=&st=&#entry21441</ref><ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=6666&pid=23072&mode=threaded&show=&st=20&#entry23072</ref><ref>The same author had previously stated 23:47, Jan 4, 2005 (UTC) "I removed Daniel Brandt. He's not a credible source"</ref>
Berlet's biography underwent an extensive revision with most of the substantive NPOV criticism cut out. The revising editor commented, "I kept Daniel Brandt, not because I feel he's a credible source, but because there's so little published criticism of Berlet, that I felt I had to retain something."<ref>Chip Berlet/Talk, SlimVirgin 00:19, 7 January 2005.</ref> This is an extraordinary statement, coming from the same author of several of Wikipedia's core content and citation policies, including '''Wikipedia:Reliable Sources''' and '''Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons.''' ('''BLP''')<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3ABiographies_of_living_persons&diff=31947681&oldid=31753956</ref> Brandt remarked, "I soon discovered that she had slimed me in defense of Chip Berlet several months earlier."<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=5641&pid=21441&mode=threaded&show=&st=&#entry21441</ref><ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=6666&pid=23072&mode=threaded&show=&st=20&#entry23072</ref><ref>The same author had previously stated 23:47, Jan 4, 2005 (UTC) "I removed Daniel Brandt. He's not a credible source"</ref>
'''Wikipedia:Reliable Sources/Self-published sources''' states,
'''Wikipedia:Reliable Sources/Self-published sources''' states,
<!--The entry alleging Daniel Brandt's Public Information Research is [[politically profiled]] as being aligned with [[Holocaust denial]] and cited to Political Research Associates, a self published source. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Information_Research#_note-0] The self-published source states these charges first appeared by the same author, Chip Berlet, in a questionable and extremist publication, the ''[[Guardian]]''. [http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/orgs/american/ftp.py?orgs/american//political-research-associates/right.w.left] The questionable and extremist publication (''Guardian'') is the subject of Chapter 9, ''Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazis%2C_Communists%2C_Klansmen%2C_and_Others_on_the_Fringe], by a mainstream publisher ''Prometheus Books''. The same author of questionable and defamatory material cited himself (Berlet) when inserting the questionable and extremist material into the Daniel Brandt article. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Brandt&diff=55132392&oldid=55131921]-->
<!--The entry alleging Daniel Brandt's Public Information Research is [[politically profiled]] as being aligned with [[Holocaust denial]] and cited to Political Research Associates, a self published source. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Information_Research#_note-0] The self-published source states these charges first appeared by the same author, Chip Berlet, in a questionable and extremist publication, the ''[[Guardian]]''. [http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/orgs/american/ftp.py?orgs/american//political-research-associates/right.w.left] The questionable and extremist publication (''Guardian'') is the subject of Chapter 9, ''Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazis%2C_Communists%2C_Klansmen%2C_and_Others_on_the_Fringe], by a mainstream publisher ''Prometheus Books''. The same author of questionable and defamatory material cited himself (Berlet) when inserting the questionable and extremist material into the Daniel Brandt article. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Brandt&diff=55132392&oldid=55131921]-->
===Jimbo Wales reiterates questionable charges===
Meanwhile, the negative publicity engendered by the Siegenthaler and Brandt cases put Wikipedia into crisis mamagement mode. Contrary to popular belief, Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons did not come into being because of the [[Siegenthaler scandal]], but rather over the Brandt controversy, as the originating editor noted in an edit summary.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3ABiographies_of_living_persons&diff=31947681&oldid=31753956</ref> Brandt requested Wikipedia delete his biographical entry, and ceased working with editors he suspected of working to further the propagation of false information about him.
''Editor & Publisher'' magazine bills itself as the nations oldest trade journal serving the newspaper industry with roots dating back to 1884. Wikipedia founder [[Jimmy Wales]] responded to questions from ''Editor & Publisher'' on December 1, 2005 about Daniel Brandt saying,
{{Cquote|I don't regard him as a valid source about anything at all, based on my interactions with him. I tried very hard to help him, and he misrepresented nearly everything about our conversation in his very strange rant. He considers the very existence of a Wikipedia article about him to be a privacy violation, despite being a public person. I find it hard to take him very seriously at all. He misrepresents everything about our procedures, claiming that we have a 'secret police' and so on.<ref>[http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/article_brief/eandp/1/1001612839 Wikipedia Founder, Readers Respond to Seigenthaler Article], Jay DeFoore, ''Editor & Publisher'', December 01, 2005.</ref>}}
Wales comments had an immediate threefold effect: 1) this was exactly what Berlet wanted, an official declaration removing Brandt's status as any sort of expert critic on Chip Berlet; 2) it fueled the already existent anti-Brandt sentiment within the Wikipedia Admin community; and 3) it added '''undue weight''' ('''WP:UNDUE''')<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:UNDUE#Undue_weight</ref> to criticism of Brandt when placed within the Wikipedia entry on Brandt, another systemic violation of Wikipedia's own written policies. All hope for a civil and equitiable resolution to the impasse was lost, and many unwitting dupes in the Wikipedia Admin community picked up the anti-Brandt torch to retain the article simply because Brandt wanted it deleted. Brandt began demanding accountability from the army of unnamed, unidentified Wikipedia Administrators further Berlet's agenda to destroy Brandt's credibility, and elevate his own as a Wikipedia "expert," while concealing the [[extremist]] roots of his own backgraound which would deny him inclusion as a source on any subject other than himself.
=== Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Extremist sources ===
=== Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Extremist sources ===
Wikipedia reached a milestone in its history on October 12, 2007, when Wikipedia "controversial and knowledgeable expert" [[Chip Berlet]] received his first block for incivility.[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=block&page=User:Cberlet] Berlet, who had written for [[extremist]] publications<ref>[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Expertly+using+%22experts%22:+leftist+media+organs+selectively+use...-a097822451 Expertly using "experts": leftist media organs selectively use so-called experts to propagandize the masses on behalf of a statist agenda. (Expert Opinion)].</ref><ref>John George and Laird Wilcox, [http://www.questia.com/library/book/nazis-communists-klansmen-and-others-on-the-fringe-political-extremism-in-america-by-john-george-laird-wilcox.jsp''Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe: Political Extremism in America''], Prometheus Books, Buffalo, New York, 1992, (ISBN 0-87975-680-2), pgs. 125-131.</ref> throughout his career, had achieved a special "controversial expert" exemption from virtually all Wikipedia's written policies. This exemption from policy extended to citing self, no original research, no self promotion, incivility and personal attacks, and other policies.
Wikipedia reached a milestone in its history on October 12, 2007, when Wikipedia "controversial and knowledgeable expert" [[Chip Berlet]] received his first block for incivility.[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=block&page=User:Cberlet] Berlet, who had written for [[extremist]] publications<ref>[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Expertly+using+%22experts%22:+leftist+media+organs+selectively+use...-a097822451 Expertly using "experts": leftist media organs selectively use so-called experts to propagandize the masses on behalf of a statist agenda. (Expert Opinion)].</ref><ref>John George and Laird Wilcox, [http://www.questia.com/library/book/nazis-communists-klansmen-and-others-on-the-fringe-political-extremism-in-america-by-john-george-laird-wilcox.jsp''Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe: Political Extremism in America''], Prometheus Books, Buffalo, New York, 1992, (ISBN 0-87975-680-2), pgs. 125-131.</ref> throughout his career, had achieved a special "controversial expert" exemption from virtually all Wikipedia's written policies. This exemption from policy extended to citing self, no original research, no self promotion, incivility and personal attacks, and other policies.
==Essjay Scandal==
==Essjay Scandal==