Sacha Baron Cohen Wikipedia Entry Creates Circular References

Lantrix writes "An anonymous user added information to Wikipedia's entry on Sacha Baron Cohen three days before the now-referenced external article was written. The Independent wrote the referenced article apparently using Wikipedia as the source establishing his 'Goldman Sachs' career. Now Wikipedia uses as a references the article that came after the initial modification to Wikipedia itself."

Comments

It is not a source...

[houstonbofh]

You just have to use it for what it is... It helps you start research. It is a lead generator, or an index. But if you think it actually has answers, or your research can end there, you are an idiot. But you have a lot of company.

Re:It is not a source...

[Salgat]

I wish people would use the damn references section at the bottom of the Wiki pages.

Re:Accountability

[explosivejared]

I agree. This doesn't even seem to be as big a deal as the article makes it out to be.

Now wikipedia uses as its references the articles that came after the initial modification to Wikipedia itself

I found the summary particularly inflammatory for no apparent reason. I mean, wow! People sometimes misuse wikipedia! We had no idea! This isn't standard practice or any guideline set down by admins. It's one case where some anonymous editor acted foolishly.

You can take this and make a point about how lightly people these days treat information. They don't even consider verifiability and good practice like that. What you can't do is somehow take this and make it a crusade against wikipedia like the summary hints at.

Fact checking

[wbean]

And what happened to fact checking? There was a time when a small army of fact checkers would verify things like this before they were published. The Internet is a great tool but it's pulling the rug out from under the newspapers and we will all suffer from the loss of reliable, fact-checked information.

It must be true. I read it on the Internets.

[Jonah Bomber]

Well, if Wikipedia AND the Independent say it's true, it must be. Right?

Re:Recursion, see also: Recursion.

[flimflam]

The whole Web 2.0 Internet is a just a mass of circular references. Be thankful that it isn't telling you the holocaust never happened, or something else obviously untrue. Actually, it's the believable but false information that's much more insidious and dangerous.