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Examples of Bias in Wikipedia (view source)
Revision as of 22:50, September 5, 2010
, 22:50, September 5, 2010→Wikipedia’s Conspiracy Theories
#In 2002, Chomsky made the following factually inaccurate<ref>http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/chomsky_redux.html</ref><ref>http://www.leftwatch.com/articles/2002/how-many-people-died-as-a-result-of-us-bombing-in-sudan/</ref><ref>http://www.leftwatch.com/articles/2002/chomsky-needs-a-fact-checker/</ref> claim about President [[Clinton]]’s bombing of the [[Sudan]]: "That one bombing, according to the estimates made by the German Embassy in Sudan and Human Rights Watch, probably led to tens of thousands of deaths." Wikipedia has explicitly and in no uncertain terms endorsed this baseless assertion. On Wikipedia’s "Criticism of Noam Chomsky" page, the following is stated as a categorical fact: "Chomsky's claim about the German Embassy in Sudan was correct."<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Noam_Chomsky#Improper_attribution_of_a_quote</ref> It was most certainly not: A former German ambassador who was nowhere near Sudan at the time did make a similar off-the-record self-described “guess” sans any evidence to a magazine that refused to endorse the assertion, with HRW strongly disputing the claim, but the total number of confirmed deaths from the bombing is 1.<ref>http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/chomsky_redux.html</ref>
#In 2002, Chomsky made the following factually inaccurate<ref>http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/chomsky_redux.html</ref><ref>http://www.leftwatch.com/articles/2002/how-many-people-died-as-a-result-of-us-bombing-in-sudan/</ref><ref>http://www.leftwatch.com/articles/2002/chomsky-needs-a-fact-checker/</ref> claim about President [[Clinton]]’s bombing of the [[Sudan]]: "That one bombing, according to the estimates made by the German Embassy in Sudan and Human Rights Watch, probably led to tens of thousands of deaths." Wikipedia has explicitly and in no uncertain terms endorsed this baseless assertion. On Wikipedia’s "Criticism of Noam Chomsky" page, the following is stated as a categorical fact: "Chomsky's claim about the German Embassy in Sudan was correct."<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Noam_Chomsky#Improper_attribution_of_a_quote</ref> It was most certainly not: A former German ambassador who was nowhere near Sudan at the time did make a similar off-the-record self-described “guess” sans any evidence to a magazine that refused to endorse the assertion, with HRW strongly disputing the claim, but the total number of confirmed deaths from the bombing is 1.<ref>http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/chomsky_redux.html</ref>
#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>
=== Abortion ===
=== Abortion ===