December 13, 2005

Wikipedia Strikes Again

Credibility's getting harder to come by at Wikipedia. The Last Days section in the entry for Winston Churchill is a bit off the mark:

Final note: he was a fascist bastard, different from Hitler in degree but not in essence. If he had not had the luck to be in direct confrontation with Hitler, nobody today would have a good word to say about him.

Despite his fascist bastardness, Churchill remains one of the most admired men in history, and received a statesman's funeral worthy of Tookie Williams himself.

UPDATE
The offending material was removed today. The important lesson to be learned here is to not expect the Churchill Society to write you back with any sort of alacrity.

Posted by floridacracker at December 13, 2005 07:24 PM

   



Comments

I'm sure you can find many, many instances of this in wiki; how people came to think of this a a 'reference' is beyond me.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at December 13, 2005 08:30 PM

True. However, it's a big enough organization that stories of its woes pop up in the business section of the NYT.

I came across this while looking for Churchill state funeral pics. It was a bit shocking.

Posted by: Donnah at December 13, 2005 08:50 PM

Talk about something that makes your blood boil. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

DAY-UM

Posted by: Trambo at December 13, 2005 10:43 PM

Has it been removed or am I missing something?

Posted by: Bohemian at December 14, 2005 02:55 PM

Yeah, it's been removed.

Posted by: Donnah at December 14, 2005 03:26 PM

The lesson is don't check the Wikipedia. Some errors are easy to spot; others may be subtle.

Posted by: Norma at December 14, 2005 04:25 PM

Yes, no authority, no reliability. But I was just looking for a pic.

Posted by: Donnah at December 14, 2005 04:42 PM

The tragedy of it all ~ how many people/dopes/school kids read it (It IS an 'encyclopedia') and thought "a Fascist bastard? Hmmm, you find out new stuff about folks all the time."

Then finished their book report: "In conclusion, it was well known that Winston Churchill was prime rib minister and a fat bastard almost like Hitler, who he helped defeat. So we're all free today. The End."

Posted by: tree hugging sister at December 14, 2005 05:35 PM

I was reading a BBC article yesterday on everyday people's memories of watching Churchill's funeral. One guy was saying how his taciturn father pointed to the television screen and said, "THAT man is the reason we're not all Nazi slaves today."

Good stuff.

Posted by: Donnah at December 14, 2005 06:34 PM