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Examples of Bias in Wikipedia (view source)
Revision as of 21:11, September 8, 2010
, 21:11, September 8, 2010→Wikipedia’s Conspiracy Theories
#Wikipedia’s "Noam Chomsky" article claims that the atrocities in Communist Cambodia under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were "objectively similar except for the alignment of domestic élite interests" to those perpetrated in [[East Timor]] by the armed forces of [[Indonesia]].<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky#Influence_in_other_fields</ref> In fact, genocide investigators have determined that the Khmer Rouge perpetrated at least 1.1 million violent killings in three years, and estimated that the full toll might have reached 1.5 million. The estimate was subsequently raised to at least 1.39 million violent killings, a sum which represents no more than ''half'' the total death toll.<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm</ref><ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/toll.htm</ref> A Truth Commission found that the Indonesian army had perpetrated 18,600 violent killings in East Timor over 21 years, and had caused at least 75,000 additional excess deaths from hunger and illness.<ref>Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR), January 30, 2006, part 6, paras. 47, 56-7: http://www.ictj.org/en/news/features/846.html</ref> Comparable? Objective? You decide.
#Wikipedia’s "Noam Chomsky" article claims that the atrocities in Communist Cambodia under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were "objectively similar except for the alignment of domestic élite interests" to those perpetrated in [[East Timor]] by the armed forces of [[Indonesia]].<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky#Influence_in_other_fields</ref> In fact, genocide investigators have determined that the Khmer Rouge perpetrated at least 1.1 million violent killings in three years, and estimated that the full toll might have reached 1.5 million. The estimate was subsequently raised to at least 1.39 million violent killings, a sum which represents no more than ''half'' the total death toll.<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm</ref><ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/toll.htm</ref> A Truth Commission found that the Indonesian army had perpetrated 18,600 violent killings in East Timor over 21 years, and had caused at least 75,000 additional excess deaths from hunger and illness.<ref>Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR), January 30, 2006, part 6, paras. 47, 56-7: http://www.ictj.org/en/news/features/846.html</ref> Comparable? Objective? You decide.
#Wikipedia's article on the [[Korean War]] claims, without offering any citation in support, that up to 1.2 million South Koreans had been killed by the state prior to or during the invasion from North Korea.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#Bodo_League_anti.E2.80.93communist_massacre</ref> It further favorably cites a quote from a South Korean victim that "when the people from the other side [North Korea] came here, they didn't kill many people." Although the quote in question is apparently accurate, the way in which Wikipedia characterizes these events might lead readers to perceive the Communist aggression as a ''liberation'' from oppressive right-wing tyranny. In response, it should be noted that: Although there is no source to check as regards their numbers, it seems likely that their 1.2 million figure is heavily exaggerated, and may come from official Communist propaganda, because the government of South Korea never killed anything like that subsequently and eventually gave up power voluntarily and held free elections; the North Koreans ''did'' kill many people, the war of aggression they started cost 2.5 million lives<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM</ref>, they worked 500,000 South Korean POWs to death in concentration camps<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM</ref>, and given the large number of "hostiles" sent to perform hard labor in North Korea (not counting those in the concentration camps)--possibly more than 4 million in 1989 alone according to human rights groups--more than 2 million North Koreans have been killed by the state through slave labor since the end of the war if we assume a death rate of just over 1%.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM</ref> A ''further'' 3 million North Koreans have been starved to death by the state in just the most recent famine.<ref>http://www.rense.com/political/koreastarve.htm</ref>
#Wikipedia's article on the [[Korean War]] claims, without offering any citation in support, that up to 1.2 million South Koreans had been killed by the state prior to or during the invasion from North Korea.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#Bodo_League_anti.E2.80.93communist_massacre</ref> It further favorably cites a quote from a South Korean victim that "when the people from the other side [North Korea] came here, they didn't kill many people." Although the quote in question is apparently accurate, the way in which Wikipedia characterizes these events might lead readers to perceive the Communist aggression as a ''liberation'' from oppressive right-wing tyranny. In response, it should be noted that: Although there is no source to check as regards their numbers, it seems likely that their 1.2 million figure is heavily exaggerated, and may come from official Communist propaganda, because the government of South Korea never killed anything like that subsequently and eventually gave up power voluntarily and held free elections; the North Koreans ''did'' kill many people, the war of aggression they started cost 2.5 million lives<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM</ref>, they worked 500,000 South Korean POWs to death in concentration camps<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM</ref>, and given the large number of "hostiles" sent to perform hard labor in North Korea (not counting those in the concentration camps)--possibly more than 4 million in 1989 alone according to human rights groups--more than 2 million North Koreans have been killed by the state through slave labor since the end of the war if we assume a death rate of just over 1%.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM</ref> A ''further'' 3 million North Koreans have been starved to death by the state in just the most recent famine.<ref>http://www.rense.com/political/koreastarve.htm</ref>
#In Wikipedia’s article on the Indonesian mass killings of suspected leftists and Communists in the mid-sixties, in which up to one million people were killed, Wikipedia claims the following: “The massacres were described by Time as 'The West's Best News in Asia'.[57] A headline in US News and World Report read: 'Indonesia: Hope... where there was once none'.[58] New York Times columnist James Reston celebrated 'A gleam of light in Asia'.[59]”<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_killings_of_1965%E2%80%931966#U.S._involvement_and_reaction</ref> Time Magazine never referred to the slaughter as “The West’s Best News in Asia,” it vociferously condemned the “boiling bloodbath” and said that the prospects of regional peace and of Indonesian neutrality in the Cold War were “the West’s best news for years in Asia.”<ref>Time, July 15, 1966.</ref> A New York Times op-ed listed strategic changes in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Japan, the Philippines and China under the headline: “Washington: A Gleam of Light in Asia.”<ref>James Reston, “Washington: A Gleam of Light in Asia,” New York Times, June 19, 1966; Editorial, New York Times, August 25, 1966.</ref>
#In the same article, conspiracy theories about the US role in the killings are also hysterically strewn about, with even less credibility: “The US also provided "arms" of both US and non-US origin, requested specifically to "arm Moslem and nationalist youths in Central Java for use against the PKI [Communists]."<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_killings_of_1965%E2%80%931966#U.S._involvement_and_reaction</ref> The sources Wikipedia cites in this instance, as was the case above, actually say the exact opposite of what Wikipedia says they say, which can be explained by the fact that Noam Chomsky invented this talking point,<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/200chomskylies.pdf</ref> and this is his famed method of propaganda and deceit. Indonesia did ''request'' "communications equipment and small arms to arm Moslem and nationalist youths in Central Java for use against the PKI," but the US stonewalled the request. Embassy staff reported Indonesia’s request and sought "more explicit guidance as to how this matter is to be handled here." The State Department replied: "There was to be no implication of providing anything more than medical supplies already authorized, but the US officials could ask questions to clarify any Indonesia requests for additional aid."<ref>Telegram From Embassy in Thailand to Department of State, November 5, 1965; reply, November 6, 1965; available at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/johnsonlb/xxvi/4446.htm</ref>
#Wikipedia (like Chomsky) cites inaccurate quotes from media outlets like those mentioned above on Indonesia to imply that a ''right-wing'' bias exists in the American media. Hence, while it happily cites the New York Times when it (allegedly) celebrates the mass killing of Communists in Indonesia; Wikipedia never mentions that in 1978 the New York Times published an editorial by a devoted Communist and Maoist explicitly denying the Cambodian genocide.<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/chomsky.htm</ref>
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