It’s been 18 years, and the anonymous editors of Wikipedia, as wonderful as they can be, are still doing me wrong.
As of this morning, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales was still getting credit for doing what I actually did back in the day, which was to remove a horrific hoax from the platform.
So when the podcast company Novel called to interview me for a story on BBC Radio 4 that aired today, I said sure. One more try.
Is it ever too late to run a correction?
Here, hopefully for the last time, is the story — tech journalist Lara Lewington’s thoughtful report plus my own effort.
Wikipedia is so important these days, I hope they will reconsider why in the digital age its editors must remain anonymous.
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What became known as the Seigenthaler Incident started back in 2005, when an unfunny joker in Nashville decided to shock a coworker by planting a false article on Wikipedia about iconic journalist John Seigenthaler Sr.
John was a great man, a hero to many of us. He defined the term “distinguished journalist.” He rose from cub reporter to chairman emeritus of the Nashville Tennessean as a voice of reality and reason in the south during the civil rights era. He was a top-tier investigative…
