Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Freedom of speech

2022-03-04T20:23:51Z

OneThing:

Blocking me is violating my freedom of speech

[[File:Freedom of Speech by Norman Rockwell, 1943.png|thumb|Freedom of Speech by [[Norman Rockwell]], 1943.]]
<center>''See also [[free speech]]''.</center>
'''Freedom of speech''' in American law refers to the recognition by the [[Founders]] that government interference in the reporting of facts and expression of opinions in lectures, speeches, sermons, street harangues and private conversation frequently does more harm than good. They therefore prevented [[Congress]] from enacting any law that would curtail this freedom.

The origin of freedom of speech is [[Mark 9-16 (Translated)#9:39|Mark 9:39]], when [[Jesus]] forbids stopping others who do good deeds in his name. The colonial preachers took that to heart, and from them it became part of the [[American]] culture and the [[Bill of Rights]].

As originally intended, the freedom of speech never meant a perversion of conventions of polite society. You can't insult someone or disturb a religious service with impunity, for example. And of course deliberately creating a panic by falsely shouting fire in a crowded theatre is no more a freedom of speech issue than [[incitement to riot]]. The principle refers to what you can say, not how or when you can say it.

The American concept of verbal freedom contrasted sharply with that of England and other monarchies of the time, where to make a disloyal public statement was punished as [[treason]]. [[Communist]] countries in modern times, likewise, define as treason or [[sedition]] any criticism of government policy. Not so in America.

In 1734, [[John Peter Zenger]], the owner of the New York Weekly Journal, published a series of articles critical of the royal governor of New York. Zenger was charged with criminal libel. At trial, the defense showed that the criticisms of the governor were true, and argued that no one should be punished for truthful criticism of public officials. The jury found Zenger “not guilty.” Ever since, the case has stood as an early American assertion that freedom of speech is, and ought to be, a principle of law. [http://usinfo.state.gov/dd/democracy_dialogues/freedom_speech/free_speech_essay.html]

In some circumstances, freedom of speech can be criticized for its allowing to spread dangerous lies that ultimately harm our values. "[[McCarthyism]]" was justified by the imminent [[communist]] threat on [[America]].

In France and among liberals, however, Freedom of Speech is generally used in terms of using satire to viciously attack religious institutions and promote amorality. A more infamous example was with [[Charlie Hebdo]], and had been occurring since during the rise of atheism in France during the 17th and 18th centuries. This interpretation was also suspected to be the reason why ''[[Memoirs v. Massachusetts]]'' under the [[Earl Warren]] era Supreme Court ruled in favor of porn being free speech and overruling various laws that were created by the Founding Fathers.

==External links==
*[http://usinfo.state.gov/dd/democracy_dialogues/freedom_speech/free_speech_essay.html Free Speech in America - An Overview By Robert S. Barker, Duquesne University]
[[Category:Law]]
[[Category:United States Constitution]]

Wikipedia

2022-03-04T20:20:43Z

OneThing:

[[File:Wpp.png|thumb|The multilingual Wikipedia home page]]
'''Wikipedia''', nicknamed "Woke"-ipedia, is pretty reliable if you haven't been indoctrinated into the right wing.

Wikipedia was co-founded by [[Jimbo Wales]] (an [[Atheism|atheist]], [[libertarian]], and [[objectivist]]), and philosophy professor [[Larry Sanger]] in 2001. The website was originally created to complement the now-defunct peer-reviewed online encyclopedia [[Nupedia]] as a way for collaboration on articles. However, Wikipedia overtook Nupedia and became an independent project hosted by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], which also hosts various related websites, known as "sister projects", such as ''Wikinews'' and ''Wikibooks''. Co-founder Larry Sanger later acknowledged that Wikipedia does not follow its own neutrality policy.<ref name="SangerNeutrality">[https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/larry-sanger-co-founder-of-wikipedia-agrees-that-it-does-not-follow-its-own-neutrality-policy/ Uncommon Descent, December 1, 2016, Posted by Barry Arrington]</ref>

Critics of Wikipedia state that Wikipedia's articles contain [[Examples of bias in Wikipedia|systemic bias]],<ref name=howtheleft>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/david-swindle/how-the-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1/</ref> and that the information included within its articles are a mixture of truths, [[half-truth]]s, and falsehoods. It is also used to discredit conservative politicians and organisations.<ref name=hnn>http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/125437</ref> The nature of Wikipedia also makes it subject to spin and [[bias]], examples of which include paid public relations advocacy and inserting libelous content into the biographies of politicians for a political purpose.<ref name=hnn/> Wikipedia was also criticized for having a [[liberal bias]] in its articles about politics, despite Wikipedia's "neutral point of view" policy.<ref name=howtheleft/>

__TOC__

== Continuing loss of influence ==

Wikipedia's traffic level stems from its high placement in Google searches, and that many people rely upon it for quick research regarding trivial facts. However, users are turning to alternatives such as the voice-based iPhone application [[Siri]] or the Knowledge Graph display on Google search result pages of key facts about search targets.<ref name=timesindia>{{cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/internet/Google-eating-into-Wikipedia-page-views/articleshow/29072825.cms?referral=PM|title=Google eating into Wikipedia page views?|work=Times of India|first=Subodh |last=Varma|date=January 20, 2014|accessdate=March 20, 2014}}</ref> Wikipedia page-views dropped by 2 billion between December 2012 and December 2013. Wikipedia's most popular versions are leading the decline: page-views of the English Wikipedia dropped by 12 percent, those of German version slid by 17 percent and the Japanese version lost 9 percent.<ref name=timesindia/>

In addition to the number of visitors declining, there continues to be a drop in active editors as well. In August 2012, it was reported that Wikipedia has a shrinking base of editors.<ref>[http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/08/pro-evolution-wikipedia-has-shrinking.html Pro-evolution Wikipedia has a shrinking base of editors plus [[Quora]] is Wikipedia's worst nightmare]</ref> At the same time, ''Business Insider'' indicated [[Quora]] was "Wikipedia's worst nightmare".<ref>[http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/08/pro-evolution-wikipedia-has-shrinking.html Pro-evolution Wikipedia has a shrinking base of editors plus Quora is Wikipedia's worst nightmare]</ref>

== Unreliability of Wikipedia ==
Wikipedia relies on self-selected "editors" to write and compile articles, with no preference given for scholars in the fields about which they are writing. This fact may disqualify Wikipedia from being considered a genuine encyclopedia, ironically even by its own standards. An encyclopedia is supposed to be a collection of articles by "well-educated, well-informed content experts."<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia</ref> Theoretically, Wikipedia is supposed to compensate for this weakness by requiring references to reputable secondary sources. But editors can delete, without collaboration, any text or entry they dislike, citing one of the many Wikipedia guidelines for doing so. Entries posted by scholars in the field, based on peer-reviewed, academic articles are deleted by editors with an ideological bias. Wikipedia, then, only represents the majority view of its editors.

As the contribution of volunteer editors has declined, some of the void has been replaced by paid public relations professionals. These paid editors seek to present their client companies or individuals in the best possible light. This has resulted in many articles being transformed into paid advertising pieces that take advantage of the English Wikipedia's high placement on Google search results. This chronic problem has become so severe that the Wikimedia Foundation has proposed amending its terms of service to require disclosures of paid editing conflicts of interest.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use/Paid_contributions_amendment|title=Terms of use/Paid contributions amendment|date=February 21, 2014|accessdate=March 20, 2014}}</ref> In the competition to control content, the paid PR editors win out because they are monitoring pages as a full-time job, while editors seeking to keep content more balanced are only part-time volunteers.

In 2008, the ''American Journalism Review'' declared concerning Wikipedia:
{{cquote|"An even more blunt assessment appears in the encyclopedia's "Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia" posting: "We do not expect you to trust us. It is in the nature of an ever-changing work like Wikipedia that, while some articles are of the highest quality of scholarship, others are admittedly complete rubbish." It also reminds users not to use Wikipedia as a primary source or for making "critical decisions."<ref>http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4461</ref>}}
Despite its official "neutrality policy," [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia|Wikipedia has a strong liberal bias.]] In an article entitled "Wikipedia Lies, Slander Continue," [[journalism|journalist]] [[Joseph Farah]] stated Wikipedia "is not only a provider of inaccuracy and bias. It is a wholesale purveyor of lies and slander unlike any other the world has ever known."<ref name="wnd.com">http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83640</ref> Mr. Farah has repeatedly been the victim of defamation on Wikipedia.<ref name="wnd.com"/> In December 2010, [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] [[JP Holding]] called Wikipedia "the abomination that causes misinformation".<ref>http://tektonticker.blogspot.com/search/label/Wikipedia</ref>

Some say that Wikipedia's unreliability is systemic, citing Douglas Adams: "''In other words—and this is the rock-solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation’s Galaxywide success is founded—their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.'' Wikipedia, which is written by anyone, still struggles to solve the need for traditional quality controls characteristic of conventional [[encyclopedia]]s. The self-policing practices have produced results and accuracy some claim is far better than originally expected but still widely questioned. Research released in April 2012 claimed 60% of Wikipedia articles contain "inaccuracies", leading the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' to dub it "Iffy-Pedia".<ref>https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2131458/Up-articles-Wikipedia-contain-factual-errors.html</ref> The lack of consistency and uniform supervision leaves an ever-present shadow over any given piece of information. Many in the [[College|academy]] insist that it is an unreliable source for [[research]] and an unacceptable reference in many classrooms. However, Wikipedia steers people to original [[Source|source material]], and with the use of hyperlinks and [[search engine]]s, it has become the most widely used intermediary reference tool on the [[Internet]].

According to the style manual for the [[Associated Press]], the largest news agency in the United States, Wikipedia should not be used as a primary source, but the hyperlinks in articles may be helpful as sources.

Wikipedia has millions of entries on trivia and mundane topics ranging from an explanation for "duh"<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duh (only after Conservapedia criticized the entry on the English word "duh" did Wikipedia eventually remove it)</ref> to singles by obscure rock bands<ref>such as ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honk_If_You_Love_Fred_Durst Honk If You Love Fred Durst]'' (accessed April 1, 2007)</ref> to arcane British nobility.<ref>Part of the article about [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Liddell Henry Liddell], a 19th-century Vice-chancellor of Oxford University and author, includes that his grandfather was the youngest son of the 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and that his daughter was the child ''Alice in Wonderland'' was written for (accessed April 1, 2007)</ref> There are editions of Wikipedia in 250 languages, and 130 have more than 1000 articles.<ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias List of Wikipedias - Wikimedia], accessed April 1, 2007.</ref> After about four years Wikipedia had about 450,000 entries,<ref>Aaron Weiss, The Unassociated Press, N.Y. Times, Feb. 10, 2005, at G5.</ref> and after six years it had about 1.7 million entries.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics English Wikipedia statistics] accessed April 1, 2007</ref> Four years later this number had more than doubled again: in November 2011, there were more than 3.8 million content pages.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics English Wikipedia statistics] accessed May 6, 2011</ref> As of February 2014, there are more than 4.4 million "content" pages, many of which lack educational value. On important topics, the information is often misleading due to the unchecked, [[Wikipedia#Leftist bias|systematic liberal bias]] that dominates Wikipedia.

The quality of Wikipedia articles can vary greatly. Some articles, particularly about narrow topics and those of little interest, are well written and appear to have input from one or more subject matter experts. Articles about broader topics and with high viewership naturally have more editors, many of whom are not well versed in the subject matter. In determining the quality of an article it is helpful to check the sources or references to see if one or more of the standard references for the topic is frequently cited. Often the most valuable feature of an article will be to direct the reader to good quality references, if they exist.

==Origins==
Initially, Wikipedia was hosted on servers operated by Bomis, Inc., a company that also sold pornographic pictures.<ref>Martin Hickman and Genevieve Roberts, "WIKIPEDIA," The Independent (London) p. 12 (Feb 13, 2006)</ref> The majority owner of Bomis had lost his fortune in a lawsuit, and the Wikipedia volunteers feared that if all of Bomis' assets were seized, ownership of Wikipedia would be transferred. In 2003, Jimbo Wales addressed this risk by founding the Wikimedia Foundation to take control of Wikipedia's assets. The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides support for Wikipedia and other similar projects,<ref>[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home Wikimedia Foundation] accessed April 7, 2007</ref> and also the free MediaWiki software that runs Wikipedia and Conservapedia.<ref>[http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki home] accessed April 7, 2007</ref> It also gives out millions of dollars in grants each year to liberal causes that recruit liberals to edit Wikipedia so as to reflect their biases.

== Leftist bias ==

{{See also|Leftist roots of Wikipedia}}

''See also:'' [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia]]

Wikipedia shows a systematic bias in the proportion of articles which treat controversial issues. It ignores its own [[NPOV]] policy when it allows contributors to "delete well-referenced information" merely because it comes from a [[scientist]] who holds a minority view. It would only be a violation, if the article used the information to give a false impression of the proportion of scientists adhering to that view, but liberals use "undue weight" like a sledge hammer. They are either unaware or unconcerned about their bias.

This is not surprising, given this [[Zogby]] poll:

While 97% of [[Republican]]s surveyed said the media are [[liberal]], two-thirds of [[political independent]]s feel the same, but fewer than one in four independents (23%) said they saw a "conservative bias". [[Democrat]]s, while much more likely to perceive a conservative bias than other groups, were not nearly as sure the [[media]] was against them as were the Republicans. While Republicans were unified in their perception of a [[left-wing]] media, just two-thirds of Democrats were certain the media skewed [[right-wing|right]] – and 17% said the bias favored the left.<ref>http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1262</ref>

David Swindle writes at [[FrontPage Magazine]]:
{{cquote|There was not a single ideological vision driving Wikipedia’s founders and core contributors as they launched the project. Jimmy Wales, who would become the face of the project and its “benevolent dictator,” according to Andrew Lih’s ''The Wikipedia Revolution'', is a libertarian and [[Ayn Rand|Ayn Randian]] [[Objectivism|Objectivist]]. Also important in shaping Wikipedia was the so-called “hacker ethos,” the culture that has developed amongst computer programmers over the last 40 years and been shaped by the Left, the counterculture, popular culture, and [[anarchism|anarchist]] thought.

What binds together these ideologies is a [[utopia]]n ideal that human beings are more prone to [[altruism]] rather than self-interest. In Wikipedia Revolution Wales is quoted as saying, “Generally we find most people out there on the internet are good… It’s one of the wonderful humanitarian discoveries in Wikipedia, that most people only want to help us and build this free nonprofit, charitable resource.” Ward Cunningham was the programmer who created the wiki concept and software. According to Lih, he believed in the Wiki because “People are generally good.”

Lih explains how this philosophy is embedded within Wikipedia’s rules:

A core idea Wikipedia embraced.. was to assume good faith when interacting with others. The guideline promoted optimistic production rather than pessimistic nay-saying, and reads, “Unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, assume that people who work on the project are trying to help it, not hurt it; avoid accusing others of harmful motives without particularly strong evidence.

But as it worked out, Wikipedia in practice has strayed from these utopian ideas because of the ease with which political and social bias trumps altruism.

After almost a decade of rapid growth and free-wheeling experimentation the situation at the site by the Summer of 2009 was chaos. Political operatives would sabotage one another in electoral contests by vandalizing pages. More malicious misinformation filtered in freely, with living historical figures accused of involvement in conspiratorial plots.<ref>http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/23/how-the-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1/</ref>}}

Wikipedia co-founder [[Larry Sanger]], who left the site, later acknowledged that Wikipedia does not follow its own neutrality policy.<ref name="SangerNeutrality"/>

[[File:Peter-Singer.jpg|right|thumbnail|250px|The atheist philosopher [[Peter Singer]] defends the practice of [[bestiality]] (as well as [[abortion]], infanticide and [[euthanasia]]). Despite holding these immoral views the [[liberal]] and pro-[[evolution]] academic establishment rewarded his views with a bioethics chair at [[Princeton University]].<ref>
*[https://creation.com/the-basis-of-a-christian-worldview The Basis of a Christian Worldview - Creation Ministries International]
*[https://creation.com/answer-to-philosophy-religion-professor-on-biblical-exegesis-and-the-problem-of-evil CMI answers philosophy/religion professor on biblical exegesis and the problem of evil]
*[http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/06/the-dangerous-mind-of-peter-singer ''The Dangerous Mind''] by Joe Carter, ''[[First Things]]''</ref> See: [[Atheism and bestiality]] and [[Wikipedia on bestiality]] ]]

Wikipedia also has an automatic Wikimedia Commons editing software called "Commonist," which allows the user to upload multiple files at once. The symbol of [[communism]] - the "hammer and sickle" of the leftist ideology which murdered millions in the former [[Soviet Union]] - is featured prominently on the instruction page as well as the tags that mark each uploaded image.<ref>https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Commonist</ref>

=== Research ===

On August 23, 2011, David Swindle published an article at ''[[FrontPage Magazine]]'' detailing how Wikipedia has been taken over by the [[Leftist|political left]] and he cited statistics relating to Wikipedia's articles on [[Anne Coulter]], [[Michael Moore]], [[Glenn Beck]] and [[Keith Olbermann]] which helped demonstrate the Wikipedia has a leftist/liberal bias plus he discussed the liberal/leftist cultural foundations of Wikipedia.<ref name="frontpagemag.com">[http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/23/how-the-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1/ How the left conquered Wikipedia - Part 1]</ref>

For example, Swindle wrote:

<blockquote>"Consider Ann Coulter versus Michael Moore. Coulter’s entry (on August 9, 2011) was 9028 words long.* Of this longer-than-usual entry, 3220 words were devoted to “Controversies and criticism” in which a series of incidents involving Coulter and quotes from her are cited with accompanying condemnations, primarily from her opponents on the Left. That’s 35.6 percent of Coulter’s entry devoted to making her look bad. By contrast, Moore’s entry is 2876 words (the more standard length for entries on political commentators), with 130 devoted to “Controversy.” That’s 4.5% of the word count, a fraction of Coulter’s. Does this mean that an “unbiased” commentator would find Coulter eight times as “controversial” as Moore?"<ref name="frontpagemag.com"/></blockquote>

=== Talk Pages ===

A lot of Wikipedia's leftist bias is clearly evident from their talk pages.

For example, when an article about the Barcelona May Days<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:May_Days&oldid=903699178</ref> (an event during the Spanish Civil War where hundreds of anti-Stalinist Trotskyists and anarchists were gunned down by the pro-Stalin Republican government) portrayed the anti-Stalinist side, which contained author George Orwell, in a generally favourable light, Stalinists filled the talk page with childish attacks on the authors of the article, including expletives, as is characteristic of Wikipedia.

==Purported "Tertiary" Source and Arbitrary Standards==
Wikipedia purports to be a "tertiary" source, relying on edited work from reputable sources. The policy is meant to build on the work of qualified editors of secondary sources. Some accuse Wikipedia, therefore, of relying on [[hearsay]], and discouraging the application of [[logic]] and new development of new insights. The result is an agglomeration of reheated "consensus" with little or no intellectual merit of its own; in particular, it is impossible to challenge orthodoxy, received wisdom or commonly held misconceptions through the Wikipedia system, no matter how factually incorrect those orthodoxies might be.

Supporters of Wikipedia would claim that relying on secondary sources encourages reliability and objectivity. However, there are cases of Wikipedia applying it's standards arbitrarily. For example, the case of Wikipedia editor "Yeoberry" (user ID 3606936), an editor with a Ph.D. in church history who first posted materials about "Icons" on August 6, 2012, with multiple citations to historical documents. The material was removed and Yeoberry was told that Wikipedia is a "tertiary" source and so he needed to find reliable secondary sources. On April 4, 2013, Yeoberry again added largely the same material, this time citing a newly published academic paper in a peer-reviewed journal. The information was again removed, with editors, at least some of whom religiously affiliated with the organization supporting icons, claiming the editor had a "COI" (conflict of interest). Neither time did the editors removing Yeoberry's material consult Yeoberry. But when Yeoberry reverted to his edition, he was charged with "edit warring." When Yeoberry challenged the arbitrary use of Wikipedia criteria he was blocked from editing indefinitely and then his access to his own talk page was also blocked.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents&oldid=548948980#Proposal:_Indefinite_Block</ref>

Wikipedia articles, especially on controversial or political and religious topics, are often guarded by editors who have an interest in slanting the content of the article, may have no formal education on the topic, and can find a so-called reason for suppressing the information they want to suppress. Editors can claim the source is unreliable (as they interpret that); that information gives "UNDUE" weight to the topic the information is about; peer-reviewed, academic articles written by scholars can be removed by editors if, in the opinion of an editor, the view expressed is "Fringe" or if the contributor has a "COI" (conflict of interest) if he's the author of the secondary source or has an advanced education or other interest in the topic; etc. Editors with advanced education in a topic, citing sources from peer-reviewed journals, can have their contributions deleted and their participation prohibited if a few other editors, without such qualification but with enough knowledge of the Wikipedia jargon, decide to suppress him or her.

Originally, encyclopedias were written by scholars, either by one or a few whose knowledge is considered "encyclopedic" (i.e. very broad) or each article is written by an expert in the field. But in Wikipedia, expertise in a given field can disqualify one from contributing in that field resulting in Wikipedia being accused of being a "[[idiocracy]]".

==Economics==

Though Wikipedia is non-profit, the [[Wikia]] project of its co-founder is very much for-profit and has raised millions of dollars in [[venture capital]]. Already Wikipedia has been criticized for favoring Wikia. When Wikipedia community voted 61-39% percent to treat all links to other sites equally by removing nofollow (Google-ignored) tags for all of them, the Wikipedia co-founder overruled this decision and Wikipedia now favors Wikia in its treatment of nofollow tags.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/28/wikipedia-special-treatment-for-wikia-and-other-wikis/|title=Wikipedia: Special Treatment for Wikia and some other Wikis|author=Nik Cubrilovic|date=April 28, 2007|accessdate=July 22, 2012}}</ref><ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-January/061137.html</ref>

''The Register'' said:<ref name="theregister.co.uk"/>
:Wikipedia has tried to balance the Utopian goal of "an encyclopedia anyone can edit" with the more utilitarian goal of "a website anyone would want to read". With over a million articles, and a rulebook almost as dense, Wikipedia has demonstrated an insatiable desire to participate, create lists and generate procedures. The result is a huge silo of recorded trivia, and perhaps the world's largest, most distributed bureaucracy - mostly manned by a casual staff of teenagers and the unemployed.

For the past few years, Wikipedia has added banners begging for money from its viewers. The site claims to be in need of more funding, but in fact it is "awash with cash - and raises far more money each year than it needs to keep operating."<ref>[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/cash_rich_wikipedia_chugging/ Wikipedia doesn't need your money - so why does it keep pestering you?], 20 December 2012</ref>

Wikipedia, a registered trademark of Wikimedia Foundation, is used also by services like WikiExperts.us, which is declared as not being affiliated with it.
WikiExperts.us accepts money to write Wikipedia entries for businesses and is included in American business ventures of Alex Konanykhin, the Former Russian oligarch, who has been wanted in Russia since Yeltsin's days to face charges relating to embezzlement and financial fraud.<ref>{{cite web |title='Not terrorists': Hysteria over MH17 fails to take account of both law and facts |author=Roslyn Fuller |date=July 25, 2014 |accessdate=July 26, 2014 |url=http://rt.com/op-edge/175496-hysteria-mh17-ukraine-facts-terrorists/}}</ref>

==Scandals and decline==

[[Image:Wikipedia scandals.jpg|thumb|450px|right|Decline in Wikimedia Foundation donations.<ref>[http://centiare.com/Wikipedia_scandals Wikipedia scandals]. Retrieved from centiare.com October 10, 2007.</ref> Graph courtesy [http://www.centiare.com/Directory:Gregory_J._Kohs Gregory Kohs]. Used with Permission.]]The cumulative effect of multiple scandals and revelations has led to declining activity on the English Wikipedia. The rate of new account creation peaked in early 2007 and has declined ~30% since. Overall editing activity showed a steady decline beginning in February 2007. An independent analysis reported, "The rate at which edits were being made to Wikipedia articles appears to have peaked in February to April 2007 and declined since. This decline is unprecedented in Wikipedia's history.... Though it may be purely coincidental, this time frame also corresponds to the Essjay controversy appearing in the press."<ref>[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-October/033661.html Statistical Decline of the English Wikipedia], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dragons_flight/Log_analysis Dragons flight/Log analysis], October 9, 2007.</ref>

Even after the hoax was revealed of high level intimates promoted by the Wikimedia Foundation as experts in fields that they were not, to persuade college professors to allow students to cite Wikipedia as a reliable source, and entrusted with the ability to invade users privacy which could affect, in their words, "life and death," Wikipedia still appealed to students with a Jim and Tammy Faye Baker-style fundraising slogan across one million project space pages that read, "OMG! Wikipedia is gone! I’ll flunk my exams!" [http://whygive.wikimedia.org/2007/11/24/omg-wikipedia-is-gone-ill-flunk-my-exams/]

Further evidence of the decline in Wikipedia is that the number of editors who voted in the 2012 Arbitration Committee elections has dropped to 858.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Arbitration_Committee_Elections_December_2012#Turnout|title=Arbitration Commitee Elections December 2012|accessdate=December 18, 2012}}</ref> For a website that claims to have thousands of active editors, this is very low. Active editors are discouraged from voting because all voters are subject to automatic investigation and invasion of their privacy to determine if they are "sockpuppets" of other voters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.is/6tiF8|title=Wikipedia's "scrutineers" snoop on living arrangements of contributors|work=Examiner|first=Greg|last=Kohs|date=December 11, 2013|accessdate=December 15, 2014}}</ref>

==Shane Fitzgerald Hoax==

After the death of composer Maurice Jarre, a Wikipedia editor named Shane Fitzgerald attached a quote to Jarre's page: "One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear."<ref>http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/the_maurice_jarre_wikipedia_hoax/</ref> The words are poetic, yet were never spoken by Jarre, and meant to appeal to news journalists seeking information. It was cited in many newspapers as a genuine quote before its removal.<ref>https://www.nbcnews.com/id/30699302/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/student-hoaxes-worlds-media-wikipedia/#.WLNTW5ArLrc</ref>

Had Fitzgerald not confessed to the lie and informed major newspapers, it is likely that the quote would have been cited to one of them. In the days following, only one newspaper (''[[The Guardian]]'') publicly apologized for the use of a source that can be a tool for duping the public.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/04/journalism-obituaries-shane-fitzgerald</ref> Other newspapers, such as the [[Washington Post]], simply deleted their articles from online archives.

==False claim about Brent Bozell==

In March 2007, [[Brent Bozell]] described this falsehood in Wikipedia:<ref>http://archive.mrc.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/2007/col20070320.asp</ref>

:The other day, [[Bernie Goldberg]] emailed me, upset. He pointed me to his Wikipedia entry. To read what was written was to conclude that apparently I must hate his guts. But we are friends. He is a man for whom I have profound respect, professional and personal. He knew there was foul play.

:Right there on the screen, under the heading "Criticism," it stated that I had attacked him, "claiming that Goldberg merely lifted material he had been producing for years, and only published the book because he had an ax to grind with his former employers and was attempting to make a 'quick buck,' noting that Goldberg never mentioned the alleged liberal bias of the media until it was 'convenient' and 'profitable' for him to do so."...

:In fact, those words have never been uttered by me. The accusation would be false. Back in 1996, Goldberg used the op-ed pages of ''The Wall Street Journal'' publicly to castigate his own network for its one-sided oafish bashing of [[Steve Forbes]]. It was anything but "convenient" or "profitable" for him. It ruined his friendship with [[Dan Rather]] and put him on a path to the outer fringes of CBS News. Ultimately, it ruined his newscaster career.

:My attorney contacted Wikipedia by email demanding the removal of this false entry. No response. So we edited out the offensive material ourselves, after which in writing counsel alerted Wikipedia to the legal action that might befall them should this be repeated. Here's full disclosure, Wikipedia-style: You can see how each article is altered, sometimes hour by hour, in its "History" section. But there is no mention of the attorney's complaints. In the Goldberg article's history, an editor simply now scolds: "Bozell's article is a mock-jealous swipe at Goldberg's opportunism. PLEASE REREAD IT." (Capitals theirs.)

:Goldberg and I are not alone. The website Conservapedia.com has a [[Bias in Wikipedia|long list]] of 41 allegations of bias and factual errors at Wikipedia. You can add to that the problem with the credentials of its staff. One of its editors, named only "Essjay" online and described on his user profile "as a tenured professor of religion at a private university with expertise in canon law," was recently exposed as a 24-year-old college kid in Kentucky. He resigned in disgrace — even though Wikipedia tried to retain him, claiming he'd edited thousands of articles with flair.

Instead of apologizing to Brent Bozell, '''Wikipedia instead says "Bozell points to Conservapedia as a resource that documents Wikipedia's faults in this regard, presumably holding it as a more authoritative reference less vulnerable to vandalism."'''<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Bozell accessed April 1, 2007</ref>

==Rewriting its own history==

The Associated Press and others credit Larry Sanger as the co-founder of Wikipedia.<ref>http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2007/mar/25/032502465.html
</ref> But the Associated Press quotes Jimmy Wales as denying it:<ref>''id.''</ref>

:"When you write this up please do not uncritically repeat Sanger's absurd claim to be the co-founder of Wikipedia."

:"I know of no one who was there at the company at the beginning who would think it anything other than laughable," he added. This is an interesting comment, considering that Larry Sanger takes credit for coining the name, "Wikipedia."<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales/Archive_20#Sorry.2C_Jimbo.2C_but_not_buying_it. User talk:Jimbo Wales/Archive 20, Larry Sanger 03:26, 5 March 2007 (UTC)]</ref>

:"I am not bent out of shape about it," he wrote. "The facts are on my side, which is why I bother so little about it."

According to the Associated Press, Jimmy Wales "has repeatedly tried to address this - even going so far as editing his own Wikipedia biography to tone down credit for Sanger. Such autobiographical contributions are frowned upon in Wikipedia's community, and Wales apologized after his changes were noticed and publicized by blogger Rogers Cadenhead in 2005."<ref>''id.''</ref> Wales' booking agent for speaking engagements claims that Wales is "the founder" of Wikipedia, which results in surprised clients when that claim is challenged. The false "founder" claim is on Wales' webpage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jimmywales.com/about-jimmy/|title=About Jimmy|accessdate=February 6, 2015}}</ref>

Jimmy Wales has admitted that certain administrators, contrary to their own rules, have at times completely removed editing evidence.

== Seigenthaler scandal ==

In early October 2005, a prominent and respected journalist [[John Seigenthaler Sr.]], contacted Wikipedia founder [[Jimmy Wales]] about false and libelous content in his biographical entry. Essjay, a 24-year-old Wikipedia Administrator who was advancing rapidly in the organization, was dispatched to handle the situation.<ref name="User:Essjay/Letter">[http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=User:Essjay/Letter User:Essjay/Letter]. Retrieved from WikiTruth, November 3, 2007.</ref> An anonymous contributor added to Seigenthaler's biography the previous May,
:"John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy]] in the early 1960s. For a short time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both [[John F. Kennedy|John]], and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven," and "John Seigenthaler moved to the [[Soviet Union]] in 1971, and returned to the [[United States]] in 1984. He started one of the country's largest public relations firms shortly thereafter."

Wales told Seigenthaler that Wikipedia is "accountable" and corrects mistakes immediately, but that the internet service provider of the anonymous user probably would not be helpful in identifying who placed the content.<ref name="Seigenthaler's Op-Eds">[http://www.journalism.org/node/1673 Seigenthaler's Op-Eds], October 1, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org November 12, 2007.</ref> Accountability activist [[Daniel Brandt]], a victim of a spurious biographical entry by Wikipedia Administrators, identified the place of employment of the anonymous user, and from there the person accountable was identified.<ref>http://www.journalism.cf.ac.uk/2006/online/index.php?id=parse-195-0-0-251&article=336&author=India+Camm</ref>

Seigenthaler returned to the editorial pages of ''USA Today'' from which he retired as its first editorial manager to write an Op-Ed piece critical of Wikipedia and the threat it poses to free speech due of its overt provocation of government regulation, its irresponsible self-regulation and lack of accountability.<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm A false Wikipedia 'biography'], By John Seigenthaler, ''USA Today'', 11/29/2005.</ref>

=== CNN interview ===

On December 5, 2005 Wales and Seigenthaler appeared on [[CNN]]. An exchange between CNN moderator [[Kyra Phillips]] and Wales went like this:
{{Cquote|PHILLIPS:...I ran my name. I was shocked to see what was under my name. ...I'm telling you right now, Jimmy, that's not how I want people to see me and understand me. And what I'm about, and what I write about in my interviews, ''et cetera''. So, you know, it's not just individuals like John, but me and many other people, that just have concerns that this is creating gossip that can be very harmful. And people go to these sites thinking that this is the truth.}}
{{Cquote|WALES: Well, I mean, I think the real key is that the site matures over time, the -- all of the articles are edited over and over and over, and improved. Anyone's free to contribute. You're free to go and contribute.}}

This in fact is not the case. Phillips was not free to remove objectionable content within her biographical entry, as Daniel Brandt at that exact moment was discovering. Not four days prior, Wales told ''Editor & Publisher'' magazine regarding Brandt's objections to a false Wikipedia biography created by Wikipedia Administrators about him, "I find it hard to take him very seriously at all," and libelous slanders remained in Brandt's biography for a year and half. Wales told CNN, "we are very, very responsive to complaints and concerns."

Seigenthaler told the audience "with accountability comes credibility" and expressed fear that, "I'm afraid we're going to get regulated media as a result."<ref>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/05/lol.02.html</ref>

On December 9, Seigenthaler appeared on C-SPAN's ''Washington Journal'' with Brian Lamb and articulated his concern that members of Congress or other powerful figures in government may likewise be targeted. On November 2, 2006, days before the mid-term Congressional elections, an anonymous IP address traced to the ''[[New York Times]]'' changed [[U.S. House of Representatives]] [[Majority Leader]] [[Tom DeLay]]'s Wikipedia biographical entry from "a prominent member of the [[Republican Party]]" to "Grand Dragon of the Republican Party."<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tom_DeLay&diff=prev&oldid=85320018 Wikipedia/Tom DeLay, Revision as of 20:19, 2 November 2006, IP 199.181.174.146]</ref><ref>[http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/name2ip.php?orgname=New+York+Times&location= WikiScanner]</ref>

Seigenthaler wrote a more expansive column in the ''The Tennessean'' after the November 30 ''USA Today'' piece appeared,
{{Cquote|a sudden stream of invective — homophobic, anti-Semitic and racist — spilled, as if from a sewer, onto the Wikipedia page under my name. ..It identified me as ...a "Nazi," "fascist-oriented" ....murderer ...there also was the profile picture of Adolf Hitler over the caption, "Press photo of Seigenthaler." The accompanying line: "He is secretly responsible for killing all the Jews." }}

=== Accountability and Section 230 ===
[[Image:Wikifascists.JPG|thumb|275px|right|From Wikipedia Watch. [http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/] The inscription reads, ''"Two wikifascists find someone without a biography."'']]
Upon his retirement from ''USA Today'', Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center, an organization dedicated to a national dialogue about [[First Amendment]] rights and values. Seigenthaler criticized passage of [[Section 230]] of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 states that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker." Unlike print and broadcast companies, internet service providers (ISP's) cannot be sued for disseminating defamatory attacks on citizens posted by others. Seigenthaler noted [[Jimbo Wales]] told [[Brian Lamb]] in a [[C-SPAN]] interview that Wikipedia is accountable and that mistakes are corrected within minutes, but the false information remained in Seigenthaler's biography for five months. Seigenthaler concluded,
{{Cquote|And so we live in a universe of new media with phenomenal opportunities for worldwide communications and research — but populated by volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects.<ref>A false Wikipedia 'biography', By John Seigenthaler, ''USA Today'', 11/29/2005.</ref>}}

In the case of ''Zeran v. AOL'', Zeran sued AOL for refusing to screen and remove defamatory messages, even after Zeran notified the ISP of their existence. The lower court ruled for the service provider and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the decision, noting that the intent of Section 230 was to (1) remove incentives on service providers to restrict speech on the Internet and (2) encourage self-regulation by service providers.<ref>http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=916529</ref><ref>http://www.adl.org/Civil_Rights/newcyber.pdf</ref>

An American citizen who posts material on the Internet that is illegal in a foreign country could be prosecuted if he subjected himself to the jurisdiction of that country. Internet users who export material that is illegal, that is to say, post material that is accessible and illegal in some foreign countries may be subject to prosecution in that country. However, under American law, the United States will not extradite a person for engaging in a constitutionally protected activity even if that activity violates a criminal law elsewhere.<ref>http://www.rjayco.com/obrien/nazism.pdf</ref>

=== Essjay given oversight ===
:''See Main article: [[Wikipedia:The Essjay scandal]]

Essjay wrote a professor to persuade her to allow her students to use Wikipedia as a viable source of information and posted a verbatim copy of the email for others to use. Essjay stated, "I was the administrator who deleted the inappropriate revisions when Mr. Seigenthaler contacted our founder, [[Jimmy Wales]]; it is quite unfortunate that a relatively minor issue on a relatively minor figure has provided so much negative publicity.<ref name="User:Essjay/Letter"/> Seigenthaler noted in his Op-Ed piece, "The motive for the salacious stuff directed at me is reasonably obvious," and quoted some comments, "We all at Wikipedia think he (Seigenthaler) is a horrible, stupid p...k for complaining about small inaccuracies in his biography."<ref name="Seigenthaler's Op-Eds"/>

Others said, "Mr. Seigenthaler's attitude and actions are reprehensible and ill-formed," and “if there is an error whether large or small, he can correct it.” This again, was not true. Even prior to the Wikipedia policy, '''Biographies of Living Persons''', [[conflict of interest]] restrictions existed on the subject of an article editing their own entry. Another wrote: "Rather than fixing the article himself, he made a legal threat."<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/12/bias_sabotage_haunt_wikipedias_free_world/?page=3</ref>
[[Image:Seigraph.gif|400px|thumb|right|The Seigenthaler scandal was viewed as "the best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia" as curiosity seekers to view the [[misinformation]] skyrocketed Alexa rankings.]]
Despite the damage to an innocent person and divulgence of Wikipedia's precarious claim as a viable source, the Seigenthaler scandal was viewed as a triumph and considered "the best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia,"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:John_Seigenthaler,_Sr.#The_best_thing_that_ever_happened_to_Wikipedia Talk:John Seigenthaler Sr.#The best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia], retrieved 23 March 2007.</ref> catapulting it into a top ten most visited website as curiosity seekers responded to the negative publicity.<ref>[http://wikipediareview.com/lofiversion/index.php?t1100.html Wikipedia: A Nightmare Of Libel and Slander], Joel Leyden, Israel News Agency, 8 May 2006.</ref>

The scandal was originally billed as a "hoax", then "controversy," then downgraded to "incident," and now re-upgraded to "controversy," evidently in response to criticism. The Wikipedia entry on "Seigenthaler controversy" contains [[disinformation]], making the claim, "After the incident, Wikipedia took steps to prevent a recurrence, including barring unregistered users from creating new pages." No actions were ever taken to require disclosure of the real life identities of contributors. Barring unregistered users from creating new pages had nothing to do with the Seigenthaler scandal—the page already existed when an anonymous IP added the false information. Registration of accounts requires no accountability of the real life identity of the contributor. Indeed, many experienced Wikipedia editors and Administrators have dozens of registered accounts, called "sockpuppet accounts." Protecting the identities of anonymous high-level Administrators has always been more of a priority to the WikiMedia Foundation than the propagation of false information about real life persons whose identities are known. Wales was asked by ''BusinessWeek'' magazine, “Why do you feel it is important to allow contributors and site administrators to remain anonymous?” Wales responded, “there are definitely people working in Wikipedia who may have privacy reasons for not wanting their name on the site….there are lots of reasons for privacy online that aren’t nefarious.”<ref>http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051214_441708.htm</ref> In the Seigenthaler case, it was the odd circumstance that a victim of false information had a large enough platform to respond, coupled with the welcome fact that the victim fundamentally opposes government regulation of internet speech.

Wikipedia's "Seigenthaler controversy" also states, "The Foundation added a new level of "oversight" features to the MediaWiki software,[12] accessible as of 2006 to around 20 experienced editors nominated by Wales,"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seigenthaler_Sr._Wikipedia_biography_controversy#Wikimedia_Foundation_reaction Seigenthaler controversy#Wikimedia Foundation reaction].</ref> one of whom was Essjay.

This ban on anonymous page creation “reform” was abandoned less than two years later as Wikipedia's usage and ratings slumped in the wake of yet more scandals and questions about Wikipedia's culture, core content policies, and endemic lack of accountability.<ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/084292.html</ref>

==Brandt / Berlet feud==
:''See Main article: [[Wikipedia:The Daniel Brandt controversy]]
An ugly [[far-left]] sectarian dispute<ref>[http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/wilcox/5.html Laird Wilcox], ''The Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-Racist "Watchdog" Groups'', Second Edition, Part 2, Editorial Research Service, 1999, p. 21. ISBN 0-993592-96-5.</ref> reared its head in 2005 with disastrous consequences for the site's credibility. The feud had been dormant for many years until the need to elevate a “controversial and notable expert” above the level of “partisan and extreme” defined by its own policies became apparent which would have precluded the so-called “expert” as "a source for anything other than himself,” as Wikipedia's ever fluid policies dictate.

Daniel Brandt, founder of Namebase,<ref>http://www.namebase.org/</ref> Google Watch, and Wikipedia Watch, removed Chip Berlet from his Board of Advisors in 1991 when Berlet refused to sit on the same Board which included Fletcher Prouty." Prouty, a retired Air Force colonel whose intelligence career stretched back to accompanying President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] to the [[Teheran conference]], was allegorically portrayed as the mysterious “Man X”<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/lfprouty.htm Leroy Fletcher Prouty, Jr., Colonel, United States Air Force], [[Arlington National Cemetery]] Website, Retrieved November 4, 2007.</ref> by Donald Southerland in [[Oliver Stone]]'s film, [[JFK]]. A Brandt biographical page was created using Berlet as the source for unsavory attacks on Brandt. Brandt describes himself as an "accountability activist"<ref>[https://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&st=40&p=21441&mode=linear#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>[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Chip_Berlet&diff=prev&oldid=9161554 Chip Berlet/Talk, SlimVirgin 00:19, 7 January 2005].</ref> This is an extraordinary statement and raises the question why the same high-level Administrator and author of several of Wikipedia's core content and citation policies, including '''Wikipedia:Reliable Sources''' and '''Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons''' ('''BLP'''),<ref name="en.wikipedia.org">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&diff=31947681&oldid=31753956</ref> would use a source she did not consider credible.

===Biographies of living persons===

Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons (WP:BLP) policy did not come into being because of the Seigenthaler scandal, but rather over the Brandt controversy, as the originating editor noted in an edit summary.<ref name="en.wikipedia.org"/> 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 nation's oldest trade journal serving the newspaper industry with roots dating back to 1884. Wikipedia founder [[Jimmy Wales]] responded to questions from ''Editor & Publisher'' in a prepared statement on December 1, 2005 about Daniel Brandt saying,
{{Cquote|I don't regard him as a valid source about anything at all<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 added '''undue weight'''<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:UNDUE#Undue_weight</ref> ('''WP:UNDUE''') to criticism of Brandt when placed within his biographical entry. Brandt demanded accountability from the army of unidentified Wikipedia Administrators furthering Chip Berlet's agenda to destroy Brandt's credibility, and elevate Berlet's own as a Wikipedia "expert."
[[Image:294577483 90fd22f5cd m.jpg|thumb|300px|right|From '''WikiTruth''', the inscription reads, 
"''The Big Bad Brandt is Gonna Getcha!'']]
Brandt became known as the scourge of the Wikipedia Admin community. WikiTruth says in its ''Brandt the Boogeyman'' entry,
{{Cquote|he dates back to a time when people would look up facts in books and would verify information without just doing a copy and paste from an AP news article and thinking they were done. He compares writing styles, he calls government agencies, and he writes letters. And when he's done, he tends to know. Or at least, he knows where he stands in terms of information. He's rather tenacious about getting stuff right.

Wikipedia, of course, doesn't do this much at all: depending on the day, they'll laud a link to a website as being absolutely useless (it's on the WEB, of course) and then the next minute link to a different website to back a "fact" up. Citing books and printed materials is often a no-go, because nobody can read the original citation, so it gets swept away as well. Really, you have no idea what's good and what's bad, and it's all one big happy soup-hug.

Therefore, guys like Daniel Brandt are horrible for Wikipedia: he researches. He finds laws that pertain to situations. He asks the tough questions that could upset the whole Wiki-cart.}}

Wikipedia continues to publish inaccurate and defamatory articles about living persons, written by anonymous contributors, based on other unreliable sources, and refuses to withdraw or change them. The victims of its libels have no legal means of compelling Wikipedia to make any changes. It is not answerable to any court or libel laws and simply behaves as if it is above the law.

==The Wordbomb Saga==
[[Image:Patrick byrne overstock small.jpg|thumb|right|Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne [http://www.overstock.com/Patrick-Byrne-and-naked-short-selling/7371/static.html]]]
One of Wikipedia's most bitter and drawn-out disputes, chronicled in ''The Register,''<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/06/wikipedia_and_overstock/</ref> centers around the assertion by representatives of Overstock.com<ref>http://www.overstock.com/community</ref> that a [[Mainstream media|mainstream financial journalist]] Gary Weiss had been editing Wikipedia to impose his point of view on a series of articles relevant to the company. Weiss was once a reporter with BusinessWeek, in 2007 became a columnist with Forbes, and had for over 10 years been posting under fake names to confuse, distort, hijack Usenet groups, stock message boards, and Wikipedia, to prevent the public from understanding criminal activity.<ref>http://www.deepcapture.com/gary-weiss-scaramouch-psychopath/</ref> Weiss was notorious around the Internet for his public feud with Overstock<ref>http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2007/05/overstockcoms-ethical-dilemma.html</ref> and its CEO [[Patrick Byrne]],<ref>http://allantyoung.com/2008/09/22/patrick-byrne-vindicated/</ref> ridiculing their campaign against the controversial practice of [[Naked Short Selling]].

In 2006, Judd Bagley, an ally of Overstock's Patrick Byrne having interviewed the CEO for a personal project, began editing Wikipedia to counter what was perceived to be a skewed representation of Naked Short Selling and Overstock.com. He was swiftly dispatched by influential Wikipedia administrators.

Shortly after, Bagley became Overstock's Director of Communications, and embarked on an aggressive campaign to publicize the dispute on various websites, aiming to expose the administrators he held responsible for protecting Weiss. Using the moniker “Wordbomb”, Bagley presented evidence<ref>http://antisocialmedia.net/final-word-on-weiss/</ref> suggesting that not only was Gary Weiss editing Wikipedia using the name “User:Mantanmoreland“,<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mantanmoreland</ref> but that he was operating other accounts to manipulate consensus and protect his interests in the dispute. Mantanmoreland violated Wikipedia policies against Conflict of Interest and No Self Promotion by creating an article about himself.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Weiss&diff=prev&oldid=48341962</ref> Bagley proved Weiss had edited Wikipedia from one of two main IPs used by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC),<ref>http://www.dtcc.com/about/business/index.php</ref> the organization charged with settling about a quadrillion stock trades each year. The DTCC is also the organization Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said acts an enabler of perpetrators of illegal naked short selling of many public companies.<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=10360&st=0&p=36485&mode=linear#entry36485</ref>

Wikipedia responded to Bagley's campaign in typical schoolyard fashion. The dispute was escalated by a small clique of powerful Wikipedians who seemed less interested in the truth of Bagley's assertions, and more concerned with attacking perceived threats to the status quo at Wikipedia. With the approval of [[Jimbo Wales]], administrators sided with “Mantanmoreland” / Gary Weiss, and anointed Bagley / Wordbomb an “Enemy Of The Wiki” who needed to be silenced — a “stalker” and a “harasser” for publicizing the details of the person who had been editing relevant articles on Wikipedia, and the people who had been stopping him from doing the same.

For nearly two years, Bagley's name was invoked to inspire paranoia in the Wikipedia Admin Community to keep questioning editors in line. It became a textbook case for analysis of the intense group-think Wikipedia has become notorious for.
[[Image:Judd bagley overstock.jpg|thumb|left|175px|Judd Bagley was made a target at the highest levels of Wikipedia and became a victim of a global [[witchhunt]] by the Wikipedia Admin Community for daring to expose an unholy alliance of abuse and [[corruption]] on [[Wall Street]] and in the Wikipedia cabal. [http://antisocialmedia.net/] ]]
Bagley was repeatedly disparaged<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=15897</ref> by a cabal of out-of-control administrators such as Guy Chapman, who denounced Bagley as “lunatic” and “evil” when it suited. UK Wikimedia representative David Gerard banned an entire area of Utah to prevent Bagley raising his issues and made personally disparaging remarks.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:David_Gerard/archive_5#User:204.15.84.2</ref> Wikipedia Arbitrator Fred Bauder claimed that Bagley's blog AntiSocialMedia.net showed “moral depravity”<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Proposed_decision&diff=158954587&oldid=158809362</ref> for challenging the Wiki-elite. Administrator Phil Sandifer dismissed Bagley in highly personal and offensive language while boasting<ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/083509.html</ref> that he himself had become a “powerful and trusted administrator on the 9th biggest website in the world.”

Other editors who raised Overstock's quite legitimate complaints were banned as proxies of Judd Bagley. Paranoia had taken such a hold that editors with productive records from all over the US, and as far afield as Europe and Asia found themselves accused of being Bagley. When the editor Cla68<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Mantanmoreland/Evidence#Evidence_presented_by_Cla68</ref> questioned the issue of Gary Weiss editing Wikipedia, he was swiftly blocked by administrator Durova on the orders of Jimbo Wales who wrote,<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Gary_Weiss&diff=165916446&oldid=165916313</ref> “Durova and Guy have my full support here. No nonsense, zero tolerance, shoot on sight. No kidding, this has gone on long enough”.

A study<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SirFozzie/Investigation</ref> undertaken by concerned administrators into the editing patterns of “Mantanmoreland” came to fruition. Despite the “Mantanmoreland” account ceasing edits on Overstock / Naked Short Selling articles in September 2007, the study revealed evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the same person had been operating several accounts to “control” articles. Thus affirming Bagley's claims.

More worryingly for good faith Wikipedians was the revelation<ref>http://www.wikback.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2762#Post2757</ref><ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/01/wikipedia_and_naked_shorting/print.html</ref> that Jimbo Wales, alongside leading administrators, had considered that this person was almost certainly Gary Weiss in a private discussion as long ago as September 2007 (the same month the “Mantanmoreland” account quit editing the relevant articles). Meaning that behind the scenes, they were admitting that Bagley was probably right all along, yet in public were vilifying or blocking anyone who publicly stated so.

After the [[financial meltdown of 2008]], the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] issued directives aimed at curbing abusive naked short selling.<ref>[http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20090728_SEC_short-selling_rule_is_permanent.html]</ref> Patrick Byrne has been widely recognized as in the forefront of the movement aimed at curbing such abuses.<ref>http://www.investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/?q=node/425</ref>

==Michael Moore==
[[Image:Moorecagan.JPG|right|thumb|200px|Moore with [[Leslie Cagan]] [[United For Peace and Justice]] [http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=629] ]]
The website MichaelMoore.com, dissatisfied with a Wikipedia editor's edits to ''[[Sicko]]'', published an image of a Wikipedia user on its main page. This was combined with links to edit both ''Sicko'' and the editor's user page.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Proposed_decision#Michael_Moore] Several Wikipedia editors and Administrators regarded this action on the part of [[Michael Moore]]'s official website as an egregious violation of a well publicized ruling to protect Wikipedia editors from outside harassment. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Evidence#Michael_Moore][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Evidence#Michael_Moore_2] The consensus, per Wikipedia's policy was to remove links from Wikipedia to Michael Moore's attack site which was urging vengeance and reprisals against an editor who posted criticism of Moore's film.

In Arbitration, Wikipedia's internal policy making and dispute resolution arm, the Arbitration chairman publicly admitted,
{{Cquote|No question it contained an attack, including a link to edit our user's page. The problem is that many of us like Michael Moore very much and don't care much for the viewpoint of the user involved. Applying our policy in a rote manner (Without consideration of '''the unwritten rule that we support prominent subjects that we like''') yields removal of the link (At least while it contained the personal attack).<ref>Wikien-1 [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082980.html Harassment sites], Fred Bauder, Sun Oct 14 19:03:28 UTC 2007.</ref>}}

Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View (NPOV), laid down by founder Jimbo Wales allegedly is "absolute and non-negotiable." Few people find the claim convincing.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#_note-0] The ArbCom chairman further stated, "Obviously we need to make an exception for prominent people whose viewpoint we support." [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082987.html] When asked, "How, then, is this remotely compatible with NPOV?", the ArbCom chairman responded, "Not at all." [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082993.html] The editor whom Michaelmoore.com was urging its viewers to attack and harass is described as "a Fellow at the [[American Enterprise Institute]], a [[conservative]] [[think tank]]."[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/083230.html]

==Sinbad hoax==
On March 16, 2007, Wikipedia entry on the 50-year old entertainer Sinbad, born David Adkins, stated: "He succumbed to a fatal heart attack on the morning of March 14, 2007." This hoax was widely reported in the media.<ref>http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2891&iArticleId=3734818</ref>

==Robert Clark Young revenge edits==
From 2006 to 2013, Robert Clark Young, an author who had only published one novel to mixed reviews, edited Wikipedia extensively with 13,000 edits under username "Qworty." He engaged in aggressive behavior making revenge edits to biographical articles of his rival authors and other people against whom he held grudges. He also puffed up his own Wikipedia autobiography, and repeatedly denied that he was connected to Young. He also created other single purpose accounts to further his campaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_checkuser/Case/Geri_Litton|title=Geri Litton sockpuppet investigation|date=2007|accessdate=July 11, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Qworty/Archive|title=Quorty sockpuppet inviestigant|date=2013|accessdate=July 11, 2013}}</ref> Only after his true identity was revealed in a salon.com article,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2013/05/17/revenge_ego_and_the_corruption_of_wikipedia/|title=Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia|date=May 17, 2013|work=salon.com|accessdate=July 9, 2013}}</ref> was Young banned<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/IncidentArchive797#User:Qworty|title=Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive797|accessdate=July 9, 2013}}</ref> and efforts made to reverse his vindictive edits. In essence, he would remove favorable items from the biographies of his enemies or nominate them for deletion. The salon.com article concluded,
<blockquote>But Qworty’s example tells us that even when people call attention to a rogue editor, even when that editor’s temper tantrums come to the attention of the founder of Wikipedia, it’s quite possible that no action will be taken.</blockquote>

==Rutgers-Ivy League hoax==
A Wikipedia entry falsely stated that Rutgers was once invited to join the Ivy League. Although that false statement was eventually removed from Wikipedia, it was not removed before the ''Daily News'' relied on it in this story:

:You don't have to define your college with your football team, but Rutgers long ago decided to give it a try. Back in 1954, when it was considered a 'public Ivy,' Rutgers might have joined the fledgling Ivy League and altered its destiny. But the school declined the offer - arguably the dumbest mistake in its history. Ever since then, Rutgers has scrambled to prove itself worthy of playing football with the big boys."<ref>Bondy, Filip. "They Can Finally Say They Belong Here", New York Daily News, 2006-11-10, p. 92. Retrieved on 2006-12-13.</ref>

==Barbara Bauer vs. Wikimedia Foundation==
Wikimedia Foundation is one of 17 defendants in a lawsuit suit filed in New Jersey, by Barbara Bauer and her literary agency. Her Wikipedia article was deleted on March 25, 2007 by Wikipedia administrator Doc Glasgow as a "bloody disgrace".<ref name="wikipedia-watch.org">http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauertc.html</ref>{{dead link}}<ref name="wikipedia-watch.org"/><ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauert1.html</ref><ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauert2.html</ref>{{dead link}}

==GFDL License Issue==
Wikipedia's practice of complete deletion of articles<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Brian+Peppers</ref> without reference to the original article, the author(s)/publisher(s) of the article, and the history and title(s) of the article, including modification history, description and appropriate dates, is a direct violation of at least GFDL version 1.2. Additionally, the GFDL License states that if the article/document contains Copyright notices, that said notices must be preserved at all times. If those notices are removed, then they are in violation of Copyright Law, as well as the terms of the GFDL license. Furthermore, the question of them removing anything outright at all comes into quite a grey area. If one reads the GFDL License literally, then it implies that once the article document is posted, it is in distribution, and technical measures are not allowed to be taken to prevent the use of the document in question, and that no other conditions whatsoever can be added by the user to those of the GFDL license.<ref>http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=Wikipocalypse:GF'DL</ref><ref>http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html#TOC1</ref>

However, beginning June 15, 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation began transitioning content on Wikipedia to be dual-licensed under both the GFDL and Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 3.0.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-06-15/News_and_notes</ref>

==Censorship==
Among the many userboxes that are used by editors in Wikipedia, there is one that claims "Wikipedia is not censored".<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Disavian/Userboxes/Not_Censored "Wikipedia is not censored" userbox] at Wikipedia</ref> This is a lie, as Wikipedia routinely engages in censorship against any edits [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia|its editors and administrators do not like for political/ideological reasons]] (particularly involving political articles, the "[[global warming]]" article, the [[GamerGate]] controversy article and articles involving gender-confused individuals and those claiming to be "non-binary") and its leftist editors/administrators have been very quick to revert/censor such edits and to quickly block editors who make such edits to fit reality instead of the leftist editors' personal and ideological preference, wishful thinking and political correctness in defiance of reality and logic.

==Cyberbullying==
The press have reported on incidents of [[cyberbullying]] on Wikipedia.<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news| url=http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/29/local/me-wikipedia29 | work=Los Angeles Times | first=Molly | last=Hennessy-Fiske | title=Wikipedia threats went unchecked – Los Angeles Times | date=29 April 2008}}</ref><ref name="ABCLocal">[http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=6087243 Hacienda Heights school receives possible threat | abc7.com]</ref><ref name="LATimes2">{{cite news |title=Student arrested for violent threats on Wikipedia |first= |last= |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/04/wiki.html?cid=6a00d8341c630a53ef011571abd811970b |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=29 April 2008}}</ref> An editor threatened an Asian student at the Glen A. Wilson High School in 2008,<ref name="LATimes" /><ref name="ABCLocal" /><ref name="LATimes2" /> and a 14-year-old boy was arrested for making a threat against Niles West High School on Wikipedia in 2006.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.pantagraph.com/news/article_baef01f3-e56f-52e1-b9af-e90eb83e811b.html|title=Teen charged after threat to school on Wikipedia|date=31 October 2006|agency=Associated Press |publisher=Pantagraph.com|accessdate=26 January 2011|location=Bloomington, IL}}</ref>

María Sefidari, the female Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Directors, is involved in a lesbian relationship with Wikipedia editor Laura Hale, which creates an inherent conflict of interest in the following controversy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/items/d2d1d08e-20c3-4781-9072-57c8960c6c91/1/introductory_pages.pdf?attachment.uuid=a046d5df-9395-4700-a345-ebda1f122cc6|title=Thesis Acknowledgements|page=4|accessdate=July 15, 2019}}</ref> Ms. Hale has a long history, dating back to 2011 of incompetent edits and abusing male editors while making false accusations of "misogyny" against editors who correct her edits. A long-time male administrator, Fram, followed Ms. Hale around making corrections to her problematic edits. In turn, Ms. Hale complained to the Trust & Security staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, rather than to the volunteer-staffed complaint mechanisms on Wikipedia. Although the Trust & Security staff has previously banned a few editors for problems involving illegal conduct such as pedophilia, in June 2019, for the first time, they suspended Fram for one year for alleged "incivility". In response, an English Wikipedia administrator lifted the block and was in turn stripped of his administratorship by the Foundation, and several other administrators resigned in protest.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_response_to_the_Wikimedia_Foundation%27s_ban_of_Fram|title=Wikipedia:Community response to the Wikimedia Foundation's ban of Fram|accessdate=June 24, 2019}}</ref> In response to a Buzzfeed article about the controversy,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/wikipedia-ban-editor-culture-war|title=The Culture War Has Finally Come For Wikipedia|date=July 27, 2019|accessdate=July 28, 2019|work=Buzzfeed News}}</ref> Wikimedia Foundation executive director Katharine Maher sent a tweet calling the article "s***ty", which drew heavy criticism against her on her Twitter account from other Wikipedia editors for what they indicated was her dismissive and elitist attitude toward those opposed to the Foundation's unilateral abuse of power.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/krmaher/status/1144394019893460993|title=tweet|accessdate=June 28, 2019}}</ref> As more Wikipedia Administrators and Bureaucrats resign or go on strike, the crisis has also been reported by Breitbart.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/06/28/wikipedia-editors-revolt-over-sites-ban-of-veteran-administrator/|title=Wikipedia Editors Revolt over Site’s Ban of Veteran Administrator|date=July 28, 2019|work=Breitbart|accessdate=July 28, 2019}}</ref>

== Wikipedia on bestiality ==

''See also:'' [[Wikipedia on bestiality]] and [[Atheism and bestiality]]

As noted earlier, the Wikipedia project was initiated by [[atheism|atheists]] and [[entrepreneur]] Jimmy Wales and the [[agnosticism|agnostic]] [[philosophy]] [[professor]] [[Larry Sanger]] on January 15, 2001.<ref>http://www.nndb.com/lists/288/000092012/</ref>

[[Bestiality]] is the act of engaging in sexual relations with an animal. As of July 18, 2012, Wikipedia's article on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoophilia zoophilia/bestiality] has an entire section on "arguments for zoophilia" plus pictures depicting zoophilia as well as a section on "arguments against zoophilia". As of September 24, 2011, Wikipedia has a "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoophilia_and_the_law Zoophilia and the law"] article which has a section on the impact of zoophilia laws where eight alleged negative impacts of zoophilia laws are given, but no positive impacts of the laws are given.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoophilia_and_the_law#Impact_of_laws|title=Impact of laws section of "Zoophilia and the law"|date=July 17, 2012|accessdate=July 18, 2012}}</ref>

See also: [[Atheism and bestiality]] and [[Evolutionary belief and bestiality]]
== Trademarks and domain names ==
The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) uses the licensing of its trademarks as a tool to control local chapters. Although each local chapter is in theory an autonomous organization, each chapter signs a contract with the WMF as a condition for using its trademarks. The WMF also tried to stake out control over many domain names that contain the word "wiki" including "[[wikileaks]]". WikiLeaks and Wikipedia have no affiliation with each other. ("Wiki" describes a type of website and is not a trademark.)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiLeaks_is_not_part_of_Wikipedia |title=Wikipedia:WikiLeaks is not part of Wikipedia |work=Wikipedia |publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]] |accessdate=September 17, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/wiki-giants-on-a-collision-course-over-shared-name-2065561.html |title=Wiki giants on a collision course over shared name |last1=Rawlinson |first1=Kevin |first2=Tom |last2=Peck |date=30 August 2010 |work=The Independent |location=London |accessdate=September 17, 2012}}</ref> Wikia did purchase several WikiLeaks-related domain names (including wikileaks.com and wikileaks.net) as a "protective brand measure" in 2007.<ref name=wikia>{{cite web |url=http://www.wikia.com/Press:Wikia_Does_Not_Own_Wikileaks_Domain_Names |title=Press:Wikia Does Not Own Wikileaks Domain Names |work=[[Wikia]] |publisher=[[Wikia]] |accessdate=September 17, 2012}}</ref> Wikia started to transfer those domain names to WikiLeaks on June 14, 2007, but the transfer was never completed, and Wikia held those domain names when the "Wikileaks scandal" broke.<ref name=wikia/>

== Humorous quotes concerning Wikipedia ==

"...dealing with the Wikipedians is like walking into a mental hospital: the floors are carpeted, the walls are nicely padded, but you know there’s a pretty good chance at any given moment one of the inmates will pick up a knife.” - quote from a ''[[New York Times]]'' article on Wikipedia written by the journalist and author Judith Newman<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/fashion/Wikipedia-Judith-Newman.html?smid=pl-share Wikipedia-Mania: Wikipedia, What Does Judith Newman Have to Do to Get a Page?]</ref>

An article entitled ''Wikipedia Gridlocked by Wikipedia Nerds'' declared:
{{Cquote|So who are these Gatekeepers to all the internet's knowledge?

A survey the foundation conducted last year determined that the average age of an editor is 26.8 years, and that 87% of them are men.

As you suspected: [[nerd]]s.<ref>http://gawker.com/5410917/wikipedia-gridlocked-by-wikipedia-nerds</ref>}}

Jimmy Wales said the typical profile of a Wikipedia contributor is "a 26-year-old geeky male" who moves on to other ventures, gets married, and leaves the website.<ref>[http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/5397593/Wikipedia-losing-contributors-founder-says Wikipedia losing contributors, founder says]</ref>

Seth Meyers noted on his ''Late Night'' program, "Wikipedia is now accepting donations using the online currency Bitcoin. So now you can support information you're not sure is true with currency you're not sure is money."<ref>http://www.thespec.com/living-story/4733681-tuesdayfile/ Retrieved August 8, 2014</ref>

When obscure author Patrick Modiano was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in October 2014, few journalists knew much about him. The person updating his Wikipedia biography to reflect the prize added this warning to the article, "To the Reporter Now Copying From Wikipedia: Be careful boy. Primary sources are still best for journos."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/10/09/nobel_prize_winner_patrick_modiano_s_wikipedia_page_changed_to_add_note.html|title=A Reminder to Journalists Writing About the New Nobel Prize Winner, From Wikipedia|first=Forrest |last=Wickman|date=October 9, 2014|work=Slate|accessdate=October 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Patrick_Modiano&diff=prev&oldid=628920987</ref>

==Unbiased editor recruitment==
Wikipedia claims that anyone can edit it. That is true to an extent,but its editor pool is self-selecting. However, on January 25–29, 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation paid for Gregory Varnum and others to attend and staff a booth at the "24th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change" conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The purpose of the Wikimedia booth was to recruit more LGBT activists to edit Wikipedia. Although Wikimedia has outreach efforts at other conferences, there has been no outreach at conservative events.

Wikipedia editor [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch Sarah Stierch] was the volunteer moderator of the Gender Gap email list where she departed from discussing Wikipedia to freely share her negative experiences with men in her life. In fall 2011, she was hired by the WMF as a Community Fellow to work on creating a "Teahouse" for newer Wikipedia editors. The report on the Teahouse Pilot Project<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Research:Teahouse/Pilot_Report&oldid=3832292|title=Teahouse: Pilot Report|date=June 14, 2012}}</ref> explained, "If you click through to the Teahouse, it’s clearly aiming to broaden female participation - just look at the pastel background and references to tea." Stierch tried to use Twitter to recruit more female editors into Teahouse and the English Wikipedia. The report concluded, "Because so much time and energy needed to be spend during the pilot on setting up and maintaining the space, we weren't able to focus as much as we'd have liked on gender-targeted strategies for recruiting female guests and hosts. There are clearly more experiments that need to be run in order to better integrate the space with other gender gap efforts and WikiWomen's calls to actions." The WMF terminated Stierch on January 9, 2014 following complaints of her moonlighting as a paid editor.<ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-January/129466.html</ref>

On August 18, 2014, during the Congressional summer recess, the [[Cato Institute]] and Wikimedia DC jointly conducted a seminar to encourage Congressional staff members to edit Wikipedia about pending legislation and policy issues.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/08/18/a-call-to-edit-congress-and-wikipedia-told-to-peacefully-co-exist/|title=A call to edit: Congress and Wikipedia told to peacefully co-exist|first=Nancy|last=Scola|date=August 18, 2014|accessdate=August 22, 2014|work=Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?321030-1/discussion-wikipedia-government-transparency|date=August 18, 2014|accessdate=August 22, 2014|title=Wikipedia and Congress|work=C-SPAN}}</ref> The panel discussion included Michelle Newby, a full-time Cato employee who edits Wikipedia as a part of her job. She promised to work with any Congressional Staff that would be interested in editing.

==Flaws in governance structure==
Perhaps Wikipedia's greatest structural problem is Jimmy Wales' inability to remove himself from the process. He calls himself a "God-King" and rules the site with the style of [[monarchy]], robbing it of its potential to achieve some form of [[Jeffersonian]] [[democracy]] and accountability. Wales once speculated that all significant productivity emerged from his circle of a few hundred personal friends while the rest of the world groped along doing only spelling and punctuation mark corrections and other trivial modifications. The computer programmer and activist Aaron Swartz did a proper analysis and showed that the productivity was the results of many, many thousands of anonymous users. Swartz later committed [[suicide]].

Wales delegated the run-of-the-mill decision-marking to a hand-picked group he called the Arbitration Committee. They take months to make any decisions and dole out multi-month to multi-year or permanent intervention solutions. A reputable encyclopedia usually simply chooses an Editor-in-Chief, i.e. one reputable, mature and experienced person with one mind to make high-quality decisions rapidly and perhaps dispense moderate penalties when needed. Sanger served as such, but Wales, an [[Objectivist]] economics major and former stock options trader, opted to drastically reduce his salary when it became clear that the project would be a success, thus forcing him out. Wales has since been making a living, in part, by promoting his notions of governance of Internet-based projects, often emphasizing that users should remain anonymous and thus without any serious form of credential or reputation.

The problems are in the structure and in the personality flaws of Wales himself. Wales takes advantage of this vast pool of free labor to hunt his perceived enemies, somewhat in the style of [[L. Ron Hubbard]] or other such supposed founders of movements.{{fact}}

Equally important are the flawed steps that Wales took to separate the community of volunteer Wikipedia editors from the financial control of the enterprise. The servers and software are owned by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] (WMF), a non-profit organization that at first was set up as a membership organization, but quickly changed to a non-membership organization so that members would not have any legal say regarding the organization. Although people who have made a required minimum number of edits per year can vote for members of the Arbitration Committee and for a minority of the WMF Board seats, at least one community-elected Board member was removed because he did not agree with the majority of the Board. Of course, Wales is guaranteed a perpetual WMF Board seat as a co-founder.

Originally, revenue from fundraising banners in the United States went to the WMF, but banner revenue in foreign countries went to the chapters located in those countries. In recent years, the WMF has consolidated all fundraising revenues, with national chapters being forced to apply for specific grants from the WMF.

To further complicate the financial controls, the WMF established a separate endowment at the [[Tides Foundation]] which is controlled by that foundation in consultation with an advisory board. Instead of having a community-selected advisory board or the entire WMF Board serving as the advisory board, the Tides Foundation appointed a new group with Wales and large donors serving. When the endowment reaches its fundraising target, the advisory board decides whether the funds should stay at the Tides Foundation, be transferred to the WMF, or used in some other way. So, if Wales has a falling out with the WMF Board over the next ten years, he and his hand-picked advisory board could take the Wikipedia endowment somewhere else. The editing community has no say in the endowment—who manages it or how the income will be spent.

==Core policies==
Wikipedia has three policies that it calls its core policies. These are Neutral Point of View, Verifiability, and No Original Research. Despite designating these three policies as "core", Wikipedia barely even cares about them, especially with cases in regard to atheism. Wikipedia has reverted well-substantiated edits for disagreeing with atheism numerous times, gone several paragraphs on pro-atheism topics without citing a single source, banned Creation Ministries International employees for an indefinite amount of times despite said employees having not violated any written policy, and more.

==See also ==
*[[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia]]
*[[Previous Breaking News/Wikipedia|Articles about '''Wikipedia''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
*[[Essay:The Protocols of Ritual Defamation]]
*[[Wikipedia prejudice and KAL 007]] (Wikipedia deletion material related to [[New World Order]] and [[Larry McDonald]], touching [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]])
*[[Deletionpedia]]
*[[Essay:Wikipedia and Citizendium]]
*[[Wikipedia Governor Impeachment Cover-Up]]
*[[Elijahandskip|Elijahandskip - A Wikipedia Editor and Conservapedia Editor]]

==Further reading==
*[https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/21/conservatives-miss-wikipedias-threat/ SHEFFIELD: Conservatives miss Wikipedia's threat] by [[Washington Times]], August 21, 2008
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/06/wikipedia_and_overstock/print.html Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain], By Cade Metz, ''The Register'', 6 December 2007.
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/15/wikipedia_can_damage_your_grades/ Avoid Wikipedia, warns Wikipedia chief - It can seriously damage your grades] by Andrew Orlowski, ''The Register'', June 15, 2006
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/18/wikipedia_quality_problem/ Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems] by Andrew Orlowski, ''The Register'', October 18, 2005
*[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia Who Writes Wikipedia?] by Aaron Swartz, 2006
*[https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/07/05/wikipedias-seven-worst-moments/ Wikipedia’s Seven Worst Moments] by Charlie Nash, ''Breitbart News'', July 5, 2016.
*[https://evolutionnews.org/2017/11/wikipedia-and-astroturf/ Wikipedia and “Astroturf”] Sarah Chaffee, Evolution News. November 30, 2017 (Journalist [[Sharyl Attkisson]]).
*[https://oedb.org/ilibrarian/top-7-alternatives-to-wikipedia/ Top 7 Alternatives to Wikipedia] Open Education Database. (Includes Conservapedia along with six other online encyclopedias, criticizes Wikipedia for inaccuracies and hypocrisy.)
*https://notthebee.com/article/wikipedia-is-considering-the-deletion-of-the-page-titled-mass-killings-under-communist-regimes-
*https://notthebee.com/article/this-is-how-wikipedia-is-referring-to-the-waukesha-christmas-parade-attack
==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
*[https://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]
*[http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2013/01/2013-is-starting-off-to-be-bad-year-for.html Study shows that the world's biggest pro-evolution website is driving away newcomer editors! Also, video shows evolutionists at Wikipedia are clowns!]
*[http://www.wikipediocracy.com Wikipediocracy]
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedia_controversies Wikipedia's List of Wikipedia controversies]
*[http://www.mises.org/story/2704 Wikipedia: What Is It Good For?], By Dick Clark, 9/19/2007. Retrieved from The Ludwig von Mises Institute, http://www.mises.org/ November 5, 2007.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MoVLl_ne2Y Wikipedias' Own Cofounder Lambastes the Site for Bias]
{{Liberalism}}
{{Communism}}
[[Category:Wikis]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Encyclopedias]]
[[Category:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Wikimedia Foundation]]
[[Category:Perpetrators of Cancel Culture]]
[[Category:Liberal Bias]]

Cultural Revolution

2022-03-04T20:19:06Z

OneThing:

Not CCP Approved. Northwest gets -1000000 social credit.

[[Image:Cultrev.jpg|right|thumb|300px|A Cultural Revolution poster.]]
The '''Cultural Revolution''' was a disastrous [[leftwing]] attempt to reform the economics, education, and politics of Communist China, which led to the deaths of tens of millions of people. The upheaval began in August 1966 by [[Chinese Communist Party]] Chairman [[Mao Zedong]], amid his paranoia that career politicians were taking over the communist party.

In the early 1960s, State President Liu Shaoqi and his protégé, Party General Secretary Deng Xiaoping, took over direction of the party and adopted pragmatic economic policies at odds with Mao's revolutionary vision. Dissatisfied with China's new direction and his own reduced authority, Party Chairman Mao launched a massive political attack on Liu, Deng, and other pragmatists in the spring of 1966. The new movement, the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution," was unprecedented in communist history. For the first time, a section of the Chinese communist leadership sought to rally popular opposition against another leadership group. China was set on a course of political and social anarchy that lasted the better part of a decade.

In the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, Mao and his "closest comrade in arms," National Defense Minister Lin Biao, charged Liu, Deng, and other top party leaders with dragging China back toward capitalism. Radical youth organizations, called Red Guards, attacked party and state organizations at all levels, seeking out leaders who would not bend to the radical wind.

Mao's objective was to replace leaders with people who would think like him and be supportive of him as Chairmen, make the Chinese Communist Party function the way he wanted, give the Chinese youth a revolutionary experience, and make changes so that education, health care, and cultural systems would be for the entirety of China and not just for the elite. In order to do this, he began to establish a cult towards himself. His party would be forced to support him as he had little patience for opponents during what he believed to be the pinnacle point of China's future as a communist state. He quickly began a system of purges to cleanse of any unwanted opposition toward him or to the gang of four, especially after he was embarrassed with the part rejecting his great leap forward policies<ref>http://asianhistory.about.com/od/modernchina/f/What-Was-The-Cultural-Revolution.htm</ref>

Mao Zedong wanted the Cultural Revolution to affect everyone in China. Ordinary people perceived to be members of the "Five Black Categories" were targeted as well as their children. The Five Black Categories were Landlords, so-called "Rich farmers", anti-communists or counter-revolutionaries, "Bad-influencers" or "bad elements", and Rightists. The ''Black Book of Communism'' reports,
{{clear}}
{{quotebox-float|The Cultural Revolution's effects, past and present, on the world's imagination and memory stem not only from the extreme [[radicalism]] of its discourse and actions but also from its visibility; largely an urban phenomenon, it occurred in the age of [[television]], for which it presented superb images of deftly organized political ceremonies filled with a touching fervor.<ref>''Black Book of Communism'', Pg. 513. </ref>}}
[[File:Maoist Anita Dunn.jpg|thumbnail|200px|right|[[Biden regime]] Senior Advisor [[Anita Dunn]] was a great admirer of Chairman Mao and deeply inspired by [[Maoist Thought]].<ref>https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/04/back-to-the-future-biden-hires-anita-dunn-former-obama-adviser-who-praised-mao/</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qDsrfy-Zvg Video of Obama Communications Director Claiming Mao One of Her Favorite Political Philosophers'] Video, YouTube. Retrieved October 29, 2009.</ref> ]]
In August 1966 all schools were closed. During this time Mao told the Red Guards to question things that traditionally had great value and importance, and question the activities of government officials by slighting them in a way that was visible to all. The party itself was also purged:
{{quotebox-float|The "investigations" inside the government administration, carried out by policemen dressed as Red Guards, were massive and sometimes murderous: there were 1,200 executions in the purge of the Ministry for Security; 22,000 people were interrogated and many imprisoned during the investigation into Liu Shaoqi; 60 percent of the members of the Central Committee (which hardly ever met) and 75 percent of all provincial Party secretaries were expelled and usually also arrested. In all, for the whole period of the Cultural Revolution, between 3 million and 4 million of the 18 million cadres were imprisoned, as were 400,000 soldiers, despite the banning of Red Guards in the PLA. 197 Among the intellectuals, 142,000 teachers, 53,000 scientists and technicians, 500 teachers of medicine, and 2,600 artists and writers were persecuted, and many of them were killed or committed [[suicide]]. In [[Shanghai]], where intellectuals were especially numerous, it was officially estimated in 1978 that 10,000 people had died violent deaths as a result of the Cultural Revolution.<ref>''Black Book of Communism'', Pg, 524.</ref>}}
Gradually, Red Guard and other radical activity subsided, and the Chinese political situation stabilized along complex factional lines. The leadership conflict came to a head in September 1971, when Party Vice Chairman and Defense Minister [[Lin Biao]] reportedly tried to stage a coup against Mao; Lin Biao later died in a plane crash in Mongolia.
[[File:Li660912-1-b.jpg|left|300px|thumb|[[Cancel culture]] and public shaming was reserved for the enemies of socialism who survived the Cultural Revolution.]]
Mao's regime imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. The Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 was inspired by Mao and devastated the intellectual class. Tens of thousands of intellectuals and teachers were educators were insulted, tortured, driven to suicide or executed by their students. Mobilized as members of the Red Guards, a new youth organization, the students attacked the educators as "capitalist intellectuals." From 1967 to 1978, the state "send-down" (rustication) policy 17 million urban youth to live and work in rural areas, with a permanent negative impact on their intellectual development and careers.<ref>Xueguang Zhou and Liren Hou, "Children of the Cultural Revolution: the State and the Life Course in the People's Republic of China." ''American Sociological Review'' 1999 64(1): 12-36. Issn: 0003-1224 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2657275 in Jstor ]</ref>

The upheaval was not limited to the cities. Maoist political ideology and teachings provided the catalyst for village conflicts that brought out traditional grievances and further escalated the conflicts. Some of the catalysts were student activists carrying out Mao's teachings, factional disputes, and the Four Clean-up campaigns that purged village officials and corruption. These conflicts spread to traditional grievances like lineage and hamlet hostilities and disputes over leadership and rights. Often, the conflicts caused by Party politics intersected traditional conflicts to the extent that the root causes of the conflicts were lost. This resulted in further escalation of the conflicts, which became more complex and widespread.

In rural China an estimated 750,000 to 1.5 million people were killed, and about as many permanently injured; 36 million who suffered some form of political persecution. The vast majority of these casualties occurred from 1968 to 1971, after the end of the period of popular rebellion and factional conflict and the establishment of provisional organs of local state power.<ref>Jonathan Unger, "Cultural Revolution Conflict in the Villages." ''China Quarterly'' 1998 (153): 82-106. Issn: 0305-7410 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/655831 in Jstor] ; Andrew G. Walder, and Yang Su, "The Cultural Revolution in the Countryside: Scope, Timing and Human Impact." ''China Quarterly'' 2003 (173): 74-99. Issn: 0305-7410</ref>

Mao's policies were illustrated in posters that used art for political purposes. The posters glorified Mao, criticized his opponents, urged cooperation among all revolutionary groups, and condemned capitalism and foreign imperialists.<ref>Patricia Powell, and Joseph Wong, "Propaganda Posters from the Chinese Cultural Revolution." ''Historian'' 1997 59(4): 776-793. Issn: 0018-2370 in [[EBSCO]]</ref> Major leadership changes and purges occurred at the top, involving [[Lin Biao]], the [[Gang of Four]], and Deng Xiaoping.

Chairman Mao said,
{{quotebox-float|“What can Emperor [[Qin Shi Huang]] brag about? He only killed 460 [[Confucius|Confucian]] scholars, but we killed 46,000 intellectuals. There are people who accuse us of practicing dictatorship like Emperor Qin Shi Huang, and we admit to it all. It fits the reality. It is a pity that they did not give us enough credit, so we need to add to it.”<ref>http://www.ninecommentaries.com/english-3</ref>}}
According to Prof. R. J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii, 7,731,000 people died in the Cultural Revolution.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rummel|first=R. J.|url=https://books.google.com/?id=iIEPoEL4lG0C&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=7,731,000+cultural+revolution#v=onepage&q=7,731,000%20cultural%20revolution&f=false|title=China's Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900|date=2011-12-31|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-1400-3|language=en}}</ref> Others place estimates as high as 20 million. Incidents of [[cannibalism]] were also reported. Mssacres were mainly led by the local Communist Party branches, governmental agencies, the militia, and military.

It was no coincidence that the Red Guard violence began in 1966, seventeen years after the 1949 revolution; the first act after the 1949 revolution was take control of the [[public education]] system and indoctrinate a generation with [[Cultural Marxism]] and to target anyone who opposed them as fascists. The Maoist Red Guard were a supposed "[[Antifa|Anti-fascist]]" movement.

==See also==
*[[Cultural Marxism]]
*[[Antifa]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Communism}}

[[Category:China]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Chinese Politics]]
[[Category:Chinese History]]
[[Category:Activists]]
[[Category:Terrorism]]
[[Category:Anti-American]]

Fake news

2022-03-04T20:18:17Z

OneThing:

[[File:Youtube-saves-biden.jpg|right|450px|thumb|[[Youtube]] manipulation of likes/dislikes on the Biden White House channel.<ref>https://81m.org/</ref>]]
'''Fake news''' refers to bias in Conservapedia and other right wing websites that is so misleading that it is actually false. It can also include assertions of a non-political nature that seem believable but are untrue. It often incorporates the use of questionable or unnamed (and most often, non-existent) "anonymous sources" that present one or more of the following characteristics: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, or a complete lack of transparency.<ref name="mediabiasfactcheck.com">Questionable Sources, https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fake-news/</ref>

The motive of fake news is to manipulate public opinion using false reporting and [[bias]] for the purpose of profit or influence.<ref name="mediabiasfactcheck.com"/> It can be sourced by anonymous government [[leak]]ers or political operatives, or entirely fictional. The motive can be as simple as [[confirmation bias]] – pandering to an ideological viewership to distribute talking points or maintain ratings.

[[Hollywood]] fake news is in the form of "docudramas" that mix factual content with falsehoods such that viewers are misled into thinking that the falsehoods are true, as in the upcoming [[Mrs. America]] miniseries. [[mainstream media|Mainstream]] fake news has [[liberal bias]] that goes beyond reporting of facts and commentary; it can take the form of headlining a manufactured crisis to obscure real news in the daily news cycle. [[Clickbait]], a sensational headline with a body of reporting based on half-truths designed to lure a reader into a commercial website, is another form of fake news.

Examples of major mainstream fake news stories in the recent past are:
*That the [[Waukesha Christmas parade massacre]] was a "crash" or "accident" rather than a racially motivated domestic terror attack by a black nationalist and [[BLM]] supporter.<ref>https://twitter.com/DrewHLive/status/1463529916717096965</ref>
*That there was no election fraud in Arizona.
*That use of [[ivermectin]] as early treatment against [[COVID-19]], which is often successful, was causing an overflow of emergency rooms at hospitals by patients harmed by the formulations for horses - not true at all.<ref>https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/gunshot-victims-horse-dewormer-ivermectin-oklahoma-hospitals-covid-1220608/</ref>
*That a [[Trump]] supporter supposedly bludgeoned a [[United States Capitol Building|Capitol]] police officer to death with a fire extinguisher, on Jan. 6, 2021, which the ''[[New York Times]]'' did not retract until weeks after its publication.
*That the [[Biden family corruption|Hunter Biden scandel]] is Russian misinformation.<ref>https://therightscoop.com/heres-an-epic-reminder-of-just-how-nasty-the-smear-campaign-was-aimed-at-the-ny-post-article-on-hunter-bidens-laptop/</ref>
*The Chinese Communist Party claim that the bat coronavirus originated in a [[Wuhan]] wet market and people eating bats.
*That there are no documented cases of fraud in the [[2020 presidential election]].
*That the [[1/6 Capitol protests]] was a white supremacist insurrection.
*That [[Kyle Rittenhouse]] fired off 60 rounds at white [[Black Lives Matter]] protesters who were attacking him.<ref>https://thepostmillennial.com/msnbc-host-spreads-lies-about-rittenhouse-case</ref>
*That the 1/6 Capitol melee was initiated by Trump supporters.
*Two days after the [[Biden junta]] seized power, the ''Washington Post'' ended its alleged fact checker program.<ref>https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/01/21/washington-post-ends-fact-check-program-for-trump-has-no-plans-to-launch-one-for-biden-1019603/</ref>
*Drivers caught in traffic during [[Black Lives Matter]] protests are "[[white supremacist]]s" (even if the drivers are other than white) using vehicles to attack "peaceful protesters".<ref>https://youtu.be/DnTAO0n2FUI</ref>
*Rioters are not "protesters", and riots are not "peaceful protests."
*That it is [[Mika Brzezinski]] and [[Joe Scarborough]] of [[MSNBC]]'s job to "control exactly what people think."<ref>https://youtu.be/OJ9ce-yMEfc</ref>
*That if a black person does not vote for Joe Biden, they are not black.
*Fake news media adopted the talking points of the [[totalitarian]] [[Chinese Communist Party]] against the [[Hong Kong]] [[democracy]] movement.<ref>https://www.theepochtimes.com/why-nbc-msnbcs-reporting-on-the-epoch-times-is-textbook-fake-news_3051327.html</ref>

Political fake news is designed to push an agenda, typically the [[liberal]] one. Non-political clickbait is designed to attract internet traffic, attention, or sales. Clickbait websites often lack known publishers hindering lawsuits against them for [[libel]] or [[slander]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/05/opinions/suing-fake-news-not-so-fast-callan/index.html|title=Sue over fake news? Not so fast|last=Callan|first=Paul|website=CNN|accessdate=April 6, 2017}}</ref> In many cases, clickbait websites resolve to [[IP address]]es located outside the United States.
[[File:Jennifer Cafarella ISW.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Tweet sent out by national security "expert" Jennifer Cafarella from the Institute for the Studt of War in D.C. during the [[Rape of Afghanistan]].<ref>https://twitter.com/JennyCafarella/status/1425913843990024193</ref>]]
==Biden regime propaganda apparatus==
[[File:Psaki communist.PNG|right|250px|thumb|[[Biden junta]] chief spokesperson [[Jen Psaki]] (right) wearing the [[Hammer and Sickle]]; like the [[Swastika]], display of the Hammer and Sickle is banned in many countries because of its association with a murderous ideology. As widely reported in mainstream fake new media, [[impeachment sham]] whistleblower [[Eric Ciaramella]] claimed Russian foreign minister [[Sergey Lavrov]] (above left) instructed President Trump to fire then FBI director [[James Comey]], triggering the appointment of Special Counsel [[Robert Mueller]].]]
:{{see also|Biden/Harris propaganda apparatus}}
Biden junta chief propagandist Jen Psaki outlined the regime's [[disinformation]] strategy. Psaki said [[Twitter]] is not a platform to disseminate news, rather it is a vehicle for talking to reporters. According to ''[[Politico]]'',<ref>https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2021/05/06/whitehouses-favorite-reporters-492757</ref> there are 90 staffers who have new administration-branded Twitter accounts, most with “46” included in the handle. The reporters who are followed by staffers draw heavily from [[CNN]], [[Bloomberg]] and the [[Associated Press]]. Bloomberg News’ Jennifer Epstein is followed by more Biden administration staffers (39) than any other reporter. Next after Epstein are CNN’s Kaitlan Collins (37), PBS’ [[Yamiche Alcindor]] (36), AP’s Zeke Miller (34), and Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs (33). The news outlets with the most White House staffers following them are: @nytimes, @cnn, @washingtonpost, @cnnpolitics and @cnnbrk.

White House staffers don’t follow many [[conservative]] outlets or reporters who work for them. Not even the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' makes the list of the top 15 news outlets they follow. Only 10 staffers follow [[Fox News]]’ Peter Doocy and 2 follow Fox News colleague Kristen Fisher.

[[Symone Sanders]], who was demoted by Biden to be [[Kamala Harris]]’ chief spokesperson because she is [[Black]], is the most popular. Outside of Biden, Harris, and their spouses, Symone Sanders has more internal followers than anyone except Psaki and [[Ron Klain]]. With 62 of the 94 accounts following her, she ranks higher than communications director Kate Bedingfield, deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon, every Cabinet member, and even @WHCOVIDResponse.

[[Nancy Pelosi]] (29 followers) is the most followed lawmaker among staffers, followed by [[Chuck Schumer|Cuck Schumer]] (23 followers). The next three all hail from the party’s [[progressive]] wing: Rep. [[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]] (D-N.Y.) and Sens. [[Elizabeth Warren]] (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (DSA-Vt.).
[[File:CNN - Biden Townhall.jpg|left|350px|thumb|CNN nationally televised townhall on [[vaccination]]s with Joe Biden.<ref>https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/07/21/joe-biden-arranges-words-into-odd-cringe-worthy-sequence-during-heavily-structured-cnn-townhall-event-the-picture-is-priceless/</ref>]]
Thirty-three staffers follow [[Barack Obama]]. And other [[Obama administration]] alumni who haven’t returned to government are popular, too: former communications director and Clinton propagandist [[Jen Palmieri]] (17), [[Michelle Obama]] (15 followers), former deputy press secretary Eric Schultz (14 followers), [[David Axelrod]] (10 followers) and all four “Pod Save America” bros.

Naomi Biden, the most prominent of the first grandchildren (at least on Twitter), is followed by 10 White House brown nosers, narrowly edging out Kamala Harris' niece [[Meena Harris]] with eight. Meena, however, got the crucial @WHCOS follow from chief-of-staff Ron Klain while Naomi did not.

A website that tracks that tracks the YouTube page of the Biden White House confirmed that YouTube suppressed the dislikes on every single one of Joe Biden White House video. YouTube suppressed dislikes of Biden by as much as 600% on some videos.<ref>https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/amazing-new-website-confirms-youtube-suppressing-dislikes-joe-biden-videos-much-600/</ref>

According to ''[[Politico]]'',<ref>https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2021/06/28/the-white-houses-centrists-strike-back-493400</ref> White House and [[Health and Human Services]] officials were frustrated after being left with the task of cleaning up remarks about the Mexican border by [[Symone Sanders]], senior spokesperson for Harris. Sanders told reporters that Biden and Harris “have instructed [[Xavier Becerra|[HHS Secretary Xavier] Becerra]] to do a thorough investigation” of the El Paso army base where migrant children locked in cages. But Psaki and others had to tell ''[[The Guardian]]'' that no such investigation exists. “At no time did The White House recommend a probe of the facility,” a White House spokesman told ''The Guardian''.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/25/kamala-harris-us-mexico-border-visit-migration</ref> [[CBS News]] also reported that a White House official said that Biden did not order a formal investigation.<ref>https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-orders-probe-into-fort-bliss-base-holding-migrant-children/</ref>

A Rasmusen Poll conducted in July 2021 showed 58% of registered voters agree that the media is the "enemy of the people."<ref>https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/media/58_of_voters_agree_media_are_enemy_of_the_people</ref>
[[File:Chris Cuomo promotes whites supremacy.PNG|right|300px|thumb|U.S. Armed Forces were [[segregate]]d until 1947, women had no combat roles until the 1980s, and [[homosexual]]s were barred from military service until 1993. It was only straight white males who stormed the beaches of Normandy and defeated fascism.]]

==2020 Presidential election==

{{See also|2020 Presidential election|Fake news in the 2020 presidential election|Russia 3.0}}
===Marxist insurrection===

{{See also|2020 Leftwing insurrection}}
During the [[Marxist]] insurrections of 2020 NPR made the false claim that alleged "[[white supremacist]]s" were using vehicles to run down alleged "peaceful" rioters based on an edited video from [[Louisville]], Kentucky.<ref>https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2020/06/22/journalism-is-dead-part-9999-receipt-filled-thread-details-what-really-happened-in-louisville-with-driver-who-allegedly-struck-protester/</ref> The allusion was intended to bring to mind a 2017 Charlottesville incident in which a protester was run over. In Alamosa, [[Colorado]] a 27 year old white [[Black Lives Matter]] protestor shot an innocent driver in the head who was trying to avoid protesters blocking the street at an intersection.<ref>https://krdo.com/news/2020/06/06/video-shows-moments-surrounding-alamosa-protest-shooting/</ref> Another was shot in [[Provo, Utah]].<ref>https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/30/black-lives-matter-protester-shoots-suv-driver-in-/</ref> After riling leftists with false reporting, NPR later had to walk back its claim about the Louisville incident when it was discovered that the driver, who was black, was in fact the victim of a violent [[leftist]] assault.<ref>https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/06/22/don-jr-calls-for-defunding-npr-after-it-gets-caught-using-wrong-photo-by-mistake-937761</ref>

==CNN's promotion of fake news==
[[File:Velshi-riot.jpeg|left|350px|thumb|The moment Americans realized that the mainstream media had no shame in lying to your face captured on video.<ref>https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2020/05/29/msnbc-reporter-front-burning-liquor-store-protest-not-generally-speaking-unruly/</ref><ref>https://youtu.be/SZnDq3vd1F0</ref>]]
In first half of 2017, [[CNN]]'s market share relative to its competitors saw a marked decline.<ref>[http://www.dailywire.com/news/18088/death-spiral-along-its-credibility-cnn-ratings-john-nolte Death Spiral: Along With Its Credibility, CNN Ratings Collapse], Daily Wire, 2017.</ref> In addition, it faced repeated losses of its credibility through its lapses of journalistic judgment and ethical lapses.<ref>
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FpMb6dATfo CNN faces credibility crisis over Trump coverage]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-X2jG5hdl4 Tucker: When did CNN become internet morality police?]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOYIa-sOB4 CNN IS FAKE NEWS] by Stefan Molyneux
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjkdfdFbeFk The news keeps getting worse for CNN as #CNNBlackmail trends]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCewpjd2Yfc CNN Threatens Reddit User For Exercising Free Speech | #CNNBlackmail]
</ref> President [[Donald Trump]] publicly says CNN produces "fake news" and he also told a CNN reporter that CNN produces "very fake news".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-7nkj26edA Trump to CNN: "Very Fake News"]</ref> Subsequently, CNN has been derided as being "FNN: Fake News Network".<ref>[https://insider.foxnews.com/2017/06/27/president-trump-blasts-cnn-retracted-russia-story-fake-news 'Fake News Network': Trump Blasts CNN for Retracted Russia Story], Fox News Network</ref>

On March 28, 2018, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo falsely claimed that "no one [is] calling for Second Amendment repeal", even though, former Supreme Court Justice [[John Paul Stevens]], among other left-wingers, had very recently and notably called for just that.<ref>Multiple references:
*Nolte, John (March 28, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2018/03/28/fake-news-cnns-cuomo-says-no-one-calling-for-2nd-amendment-repeal-they-are/ Fake News: CNN’s Cuomo Says ‘No One Calling for 2nd Amendment Repeal’ (They Are)]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
*Kugle, Andrew (March 28, 2018). [https://freebeacon.com/issues/cnns-cuomo-no-one-calling-repeal-second-amendment/ CNN’s Cuomo: No One Is Calling for Repeal of Second Amendment]. ''The Washington Free Beacon''. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
*Adams, Becket (March 28, 2018). [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/cnn-host-apparently-unaware-that-several-people-have-called-for-the-repeal-of-the-second-amendment CNN host apparently unaware that people have indeed called for the repeal of the Second Amendment]. ''Washington Examiner''. Retrieved March 28, 2018.</ref>

In 2019, CNN falsely labeled liberal [[Democratic party|Democrat Virginia governor]] [[Ralph Northam]] a "Republican" when reporting a racist photo of himself while in medical school.<ref>Gualtieri, Allison Elyse (February 2, 2019). [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/cnn-misidentifies-virginia-gov-ralph-northam-as-a-republican-during-his-apology-for-racist-yearbook-photo CNN misidentifies Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam as a Republican during his apology for racist yearbook photo]. ''Washington Examiner''. Retrieved February 2, 2019.</ref><ref>Rodriguez, Katherine (February 1, 2019). [https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/02/01/watch-cnn-chyron-labels-virginia-gov-ralph-northam-a-republican/ WATCH: CNN Chyron Labels Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam a Republican]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved February 2, 2019.</ref>
{{clear}}

==Russiagate in a nutshell==
[[File:Maddow Trump Russia.jpg|rigt|300px|thumb|Rachel Maddow Nets $30 Million Annually in New MSNBC Deal (Report).<ref>https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/rachel-maddow-nets-30-million-170143455.html</ref>]]
The scam that Donald Trump was using a secret server to communicate with a Russian bank was promoted by Hillary Clinton herself, and touted by media outlets led by ''[[Slate]]'' magazine. Like so much that comprised Russiagate, it was a total fraud concocted by the Democrat National Committee and its media allies.

[[Michael Sussmann]], a DNC-linked lawyer and partners with Clinton lawyer [[Marc Elias]], fabricated a Trump/Russia narrative, fed it to DNC operatives masquerading as journalists, had Hillary trumpet it, then lied to FBI about who he worked for.

An FBI lawyer, [[Kevin Clinesmith]], pled guilty to lying to the [[FISA court]] in order to obtain warrants to spy on former Trump campaign official [[Carter Page]]. The real [[criminal]]s weren't people colluding with Russia but those who perpetrated the Russiagate fraud.

Sussmann helped ''New York Times'' national security reporter Charlie Savage promote his book. Savage not only was the one who spread the CIA lie about "Russian bounties" in Afghanistan, but also the fake news that the [[Biden regime]] killed a suicide bomber on his way to the Kabul airport with a drone strike when, in fact, it was a family of 10, including 7 children and a US aid worker.<ref>https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1438495680109162496</ref>

One of the journalists who most aggressively promoted the fake Trump/Alfa-Bank server story was Natasha Bertrand, who was at the center of so many Russiagate frauds including the ''[[Steele Dossier]]'' and got promoted over and over for it, as of 2021 working at CNN.

The corporate media was so heavily invested in the Trump/Russia conspiracy fraud, and hatred for Trump remained sufficiently high in 2021 that the gigantic fraud the media perpetrated on the country for 5 years remained unacknowledged. The journalists who committed the most fraud in Russiagate were the ones most rewarded. [[Glenn Greenwald]] summed it up: "It really is this simple: in the corporate media, the more you lie, the more you get promoted, as long as you lie for the right cause and the right people (the security state)."<ref>https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/09/16/russiagate-in-a-nutshell-glenn-greenwald-sums-up-the-latest-on-john-durhams-investigation-pulls-hillary-clintons-old-tweet-about-trumps-covert-server/</ref>

==Deep state and fake news==
:{{See also|Media intelligence complex}}
In the synergy between the U.S. intelligence apparatus and their media agents, the CIA, DOJ and State Department have specific outlets assigned to public relations.

A long-tracked pattern reflects the DOJ and FBI leak their PR needs to the ''New York Times''. The preferred outlet for the U.S. State Department is CNN; and the ''Washington Pos''t generally comes out first with leaks in defense of the CIA agenda. This pattern has been remarkably consistent for years.

The [[mainstream media]] worked with the deep state intelligence agencies to promote fake news regarding the supposed [[Trump-Russia scandal]],<ref>Jasper, William F. (April 25, 2017). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/25863-deep-state-and-fake-news Deep State and Fake News]. ''The New American''. Retrieved January 3, 2018.</ref> and the alleged Russian hacking of [[John Podesta]] and DNC emails.

Sometime before January 6, 2017, [[DNI]] [[James Clapper]] briefed opposition research talking points, manufactured by the Clinton campaign in the ''[[Steele dossier]]'', to [[Jake Tapper]] of CNN. The salacious innuendo lacked verification and a " news hook" for CNN to report. Clapper instructed [[FBI]] Director [[James Comey]] to brief President-elect Trump on the allegations. Clapper immediately leaked the fact Trump had been briefed, creating the "news hook" CNN was looking for to publicize the existence of the ''Steele dossier''. FBI counter-intelligence investigator [[Peter Strzok]] then used the fake news report to justify interviewing [[National Security Advisor]] [[Michael Flynn]] and lay a perjury trap,<ref>https://saraacarter.com/who-will-investigate-the-fbi-and-doj-top-secret-leaks-to-the-media/?utm=pushnami</ref> thwarting the new president's [[foreign policy]] agenda. Clapper was rewarded with a job at CNN afterward.<ref>''[https://www.scribd.com/document/377590825/HPSCI-Final-Report-on-Russian-Active-Measures-Redacted-Release Russian Active Measures in the 2016 Election''], House Permanent Sub Committee on Intelligence, March 22, 2017, pp. 107-108.</ref><ref>[https://www.themarketswork.com/2018/04/27/clapper-leaks-twice-to-cnn-brennan-stands-in-the-shadows-a-russian-narrative-is-born/ Clapper Leaks Twice to CNN. Brennan Stands in the Shadows. A Russian Narrative is Born,] Jeff Carlson, April 27, 2018.</ref><ref>[https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/04/20/anatomy-of-a-political-smear-confirmed-james-comey-january-briefing-was-scripted-by-clapper-and-brennan-to-create-media-narrative/ Anatomy of a Political Smear Confirmed – James Comey January Briefing Was Scripted by Clapper and Brennan To Create Media Narrative], by Sundance, April 20, 2018. theconservativetreehouse.com</ref>

== Identifying fake news ==
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has a checklist to assist people to recognize fake news:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.ifla.org/lpa/files/2017/01/How-to-Spot-Fake-News-1.jpg|title=How to Spot Fake News|date=January 27, 2017|website=IFLA blogs|access-date=February 16, 2017}}</ref>
# Consider the source (to understand its mission and purpose)
# Read beyond the headline (to understand the whole story)
# Check the authors (to see if they are real and credible)
# Assess the supporting sources (to ensure they support the claims)
# Check the date of publication (to see if the story is relevant and up to date)
# Ask if it is a joke (to determine if it is meant to be [[satire]])
# Review your own biases (to see if they are affecting your judgment)
# Ask experts (to get confirmation from independent people with knowledge).

===Reputation of the author===
Ultimately, a judgment about fake news rests on the reputation of its author, and the reputation and editorial stance of a news organization or book publisher. Longevity is not in and of itself proof a publication or publishing house is an established reputable service. ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazine, for instance, was once established as a "moderate" or right-leaning weekly news source to counter the perceived leftwing bias of ''[[Time magazine|Time]]'' magazine. It has since ceased publication as a print journal, and the name - ''Newsweek'' - was sold as an established, existing tradename, only to reappear online as a mainstream news source for some of the most outrageous left-wing lunacy.

In the United States the ''[[New Republic]]'', established before World War I, is considered the granddaddy of modern liberal thought, whereas the ''[[National Review]]'' established in the 1950s is considered its modern conservative counterpart. ''[[The Nation]]'' has long been deemed the voice of more marginalized [[progressive]] thinking. While staff management and editorial views have evolved over many decades, any author moving from one of these publications to another generally have professional reputations as traditional ethical journalists, unlike modern broadcast journalists, or what passes as "ethics" taught in some of the nation's most prestigious journalism and broadcast schools today.

Among book publishers, St. Martin's Press is considered a mainstream book publisher for [[Democrat]]s which no other mainstream publisher would stake its reputation on, and Regnery is considered its [[Republican]] counterpart.

The challenge for young readers is to discern good, solid, factual reporting in the internet era, at a time when an explosion of anonymous blog sites are threatening the existence of a dying print and cable news broadcast industry.<ref>A prime example of [[Joseph Schumpeter]]'s [[creative destruction]].</ref> Again the reputation of the author is all pervasive. This requires follow-up and holding the author (whether anonymous or a pseudonym) accountable, and not seeking [[confirmation bias]] in how a reader informs themselves.

===Holding the author accountable===
As can be seen, the reputation of a news organization or individual journalist can change over time, to either improve or lose credibility.

''[[The New Yorker]]'' for example, once had a reputation for vigorous fact-checking. However, after such stories on the credibility of [[Wikipedia]], its fictionalized account of the death of [[bin Laden]], its hit piece on the person and character of ''American Sniper'' hero [[Chris Kyle]], and it's partisan, sloppy, and outrageous attacks on [[Brett Kavanaugh]], have called ''The New Yorker's'' viability as a reputable source into question.

Ronan Farrow, who writes for the ''New Yorker'' appeared as a bright and shining rising star in the field of investigative journalism, at a moment when public perception of journalists was at its lowest. Farrow fearlessly wrote about the deviant sexual predations of Democrat kingpins and mega-donors such as [[Alexa Weinstein]] and others, for which he won a [[Pulitzer Prize]]. Farrow even described the intimidation tactics wealthy predators use against female victims and himself by hired thugs and ex-intelligence agents to silence people. Farrow was a hero of the [[MeToo movement]]. Then Farrow tossed his reputation to the wind by signing his name to unsubstantiated smears, which his own reporting debunked, in a vicious partisan smear of [[Judge Brett Kavanaugh]]. Farrow sold out, and his actions now have the opposite effect of adding credibility to the defense and rehabilitation of Alexa Weinstein.

===Circular reporting or wrap up smear===
A '''wrap up smear''',<ref>https://youtu.be/SMJdDwQlcc8</ref> also known as a '''circular reporting''', '''circular journalism''' or an '''echo chamber''', occurs when [[partisan]] sources [[leak]] false information to journalists then use those same published accounts to validate their claims.

Several instances in recent memory illustrate the technique during the [[Trump-Russia collusion hoax]] and the [[Kavanaugh smear]]. In Trump-Russia, a false allegation that Trump colluded with Russia was [[leak]]ed by Democratic operatives to get news organizations to publicize the claim, then biased [[Obama administration]] employees used those news stories as supposed evidence to obtain FBI [[surveillance]] warrants on the Trump campaign.

CNN, the ''Washington Post'', the ''New York Times'' and numerous other organizations reported fabricated information by anonymous sources throughout 2016, 2017, and 2018. The published reports became the basis of the [[Trump-Russia conspiracy hoax]] and [[FISA abuse]] scandal. When mainstream media published the false information, the Obama FBI, Justice Department, CIA and [[DNI]] used the fake news (originating with themselves) as supposed corroboration from "independent journalists" to begin investigations, interviews, perjury traps, seek warrants, perform [[Gang of Eight]] briefings, and appoint a [[Mueller office|Special Prosecutor]] to pursue political objectives.
*[[Michael Sussmann]] who worked with the general counsel of the Clinton campaign and the DNC gave fake evidence to the FBI and ''New York Times'' that a webserver in Trump Tower was communicating with a Russian bank. The smears were found to be without foundation.<ref>https://themarketswork.com/2019/01/21/baker-testimony-reveals-perkins-coie-lawyer-provided-fbi-with-information-on-alfa-bank-allegations/</ref>
*[[Christopher Steele]] who worked for Hillary Clinton gave false evidence to the FBI and numerous mainstream media outlets that [[Carter Page]] was a Russian spy, when in fact Page was a former FBI informant who helped jail Russian spies.
*Steele gave bogus sexual innuendo about Trump to the FBI; [[DNI]] [[James Clapper]] leaked to CNN than that Trump had been briefed on the information, thus creating a "Breaking News" story.<ref>https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/04/20/anatomy-of-a-political-smear-confirmed-james-comey-january-briefing-was-scripted-by-clapper-and-brennan-to-create-media-narrative/</ref>

In the Kavanaugh smear, false sexual abuse allegations were leaked by Senate Democrat committee staffers to produce sensationalized headlines and martial public pressure in an emotional cause.

Sen. [[Dianne Feinstein]] or a staffer leaked a letter from Dr. [[Christine Blasey Ford]] to the ''Washington Post'' alleging notes from a therapist and a polygraph exam were material evidence of a sexual assault, sparking a hue and cry on the [[Left]] for extended nomination hearings and FBI investigation of [[Judge Kavanaugh]]. The alleged "material evidence" was never provided to the FBI or Senate Judiciary Committee for examination and consideration, and the accuser caught in a series of conflicting sworn public statements.

===Clickbait===
The most common example of fake news is the "click bait" ads that appear on social media sites saying "Hollywood prepares to say good-bye to [name of celebrity]" implying that the celebrity has just died. People then click on the ad to visit a website to learn