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Stephen Colbert Wikipedia Prank Backfires
Vicissidude writes "The champion of 'truthiness' couldn't resist making fun of a website where facts, it seems, are endlessly malleable. But after making fun of Wikipedia on Monday night's "Colbert Report," Colbert learned some hard truths about Wikipedia's strength in resisting vandalism. Here's how the segment started: 'Colbert logs on to the Wikipedia article about his show to find out whether he usually refers to Oregon as "California's Canada or Washington's Mexico." Upon learning that he has referred to Oregon as both, he demonstrates how easy it is to disregard both references and put in a completely new one (Oregon is Idaho's Portugal), declaring it "the opinion I've always held, you can look it up."' Colbert then called on users to go to the site and falsify the entry on elephants. But Wikipedia's volunteer administrators were among those watching Colbert, and they responded swiftly to correct the entry, block further mischievous editing, and ban user StephenColbert from the website."
If one were to write into the Wikipedia entry the following, "Wikipedia was practically shut down by Stephen Colbert", would that make it true?
Of course, I was being facetious....still am. My entry got +5, yours +2, so does that make my original comment on Slashdot more valid? Nah, it's just the tyrrany of the masses at work. And that was Colbert's very valid, not backfired-at-all point.
JoAnn
Wow, you sure are an asshole.
Dude, no offense, but Dogma was about as unfunny as a movie with Chris Rock, George Carlin, Jason Lee and Alan Rickman could be.