Palin's Wikipedia Entry Altered Before Announcement

Internet watch dogs have sniffed out an online snafu in terms of Governor Sarah Palin's biographical credibility. According to a story that broke on NPR Friday, 30 "favorable changes" were made to Palin's Wikipedia biography. The changes, discovered by a Wikipedia editor, and laid out side-by-side on a live Wikipedia page (courtesy Daily Kos article), show her bio being pumped up for voters, emphasizing the kinds of details that the campaign will be touting during the coming weeks.

It's unclear as to whether the person who made the changes to the Wikipedia entry is affiliated with the campaign or not, but based on what we know so far, it looks suspicious. Whoever edited the entry is clearly a Palin supporter and not a neutral party, using the alias 'Young Trigg,' and only editing that one entry in Wikipedia. Whether the person knew that Palin would be the nominee as of the next day is yet to be determined, but even given the probabliity that she would be the choice, it would have been a good tactical move by the campaign and supporters to update her biographies in all locations just in case she was selected.

A few interesting tidbits from the Wikipedia entry that also lead to the conclusion that the entry was updated for campaign purposes: Palin is still listed with her profession as 'journalist.' Also, compared with Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius's Wikipedia entry, Palin's is now longer (Sebelius was on the short list for an Obama VP choice and has a longer political cv than does Palin.) More information on Palin's son, Track, being deployed to Iraq, was also added to the entry, similar to a point also being emphasized by the Obama campaign about Joe Biden's son, Beau.

According to NPR, Wikipedia is now restricting who can edit Palin's page, a restriction that was not in place previously. After the McCain campaign's history of being heckled by tech savvy progressives for quotes about his Internet use like the San Francisco Chronicle article where he said, "[i]t doesn't mean that I have to e-mail people" and referred to how his staff shows him e-mail throughout the day, the campaign needs to tread cautiously in terms of technology use. It's widely accepted that the McCain campaign and supporters are not as savvy as the Obama campaign, for obvious demographic reasons, but the netroots community will continue to take down McCain/Palin for things like the Wikipedia edits as election day nears.

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Comments

[glenncz]

Sure this gal is all about change! Changing the truth and trying to pull off a HOAX on the American Public. Here is the definitive source for all Sarah info, pictures, photos and videos. More than you need to know. Please forward and be a great American and send this girl packing back to Alaska from whence she came.

http://www.sarah-palin-photos.com/

[demfriend]

Although I understand the reasons for Wikkipedia to be allowing for changes by all I believe it shouldn't be allowed to put falsehoods on the political peoples entries as it allows for these things to happen. I would think a monitor assigned to make sure those who are significant in politics are not added to or slandered while the race is on would help prevent the favoritisms and those who can write whatever to embelish and make things appear better than they should be does not good service. Wikki should carry truth as well as be available to responsible persons.

[CharlesJ]

This is not the only web page that has changed. Palin's personal bio page with the govenor's office has changed....in fact it was temporarily turned off, the when it came back up it was 4 times longer. There were also several other sites that had her bio, (college, employment history, family background, ect, plus some positive information as well as some negative history of politics, these pages have completely disappeared and new pages put up. I dont know who is doing this, but it is wrong. When it was announced by the media that Palin was the pick, I immediately conducted a web search, found some very meaty sites, but did not shave them, planned to go back copy the web pages and read them in detail; however when I went back the next day half the web pages were either gone or severely altered/rewritten. The ugly and not so good stuff was eliminated or rewritten to make it sound as if Palin was the target of a political smear with in the state. I regret not saving my original web search, because with out the ability to back it up, I am not able to share what I read.. but some of it was not nice, had to do with her time as mayor as well as her true political stand state vs oil, the bridge to nowhere the real facts, her dealings with whats his head that is in trouble....ect.

[Ron333wood]

So can anyone provide me with some educational information on the person that could be the next vice president to assume the "Leader of the Free World" mantel. All I could find was that she graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987. Since McCain graduated at the bottom of his class did he select someone that has his same stellar educational record.

[M.S. Bellows, Jr. - Huffpost Blogger]

"Young Trigg"? Palin's 4 month old Down Syndrome son is named "Trig."

[LTinCali]

I started working on a written project about her and when I went back to Wikipedia to refer back to information about the ethics commission she was on and why she quit, all that information had disappeared and her entire page had been redone. I originally accessed her page on Friday morning just before the official announcement by McCain. I went back yesterday (Sunday) to find it totally revamped.

[Ladyteguesian]

I noticed the change of religion myself.. It is weird until you realize what the Assembly of God Church (Holy Rollers) stands for.. Devine healing for one thing.. there goes health care for America.

[vew]

HuffPost's Pick

There is a young man in Colorado Springs who has a website/blog supporting Palin. It seems that he has been working for over a year to get her name into Republican circles. Since he's so tech savy he may have made the changes. Just a thought. I think I read about him on one of the Huffington Post articles.

[cifip]

Thanks to W's unconstitutional surveillance "requests" of the telcos, it should be fairly easy to determine who made the changes and from where. Of course, that information has probably already been "lost".

[swanseaboi2005]

Her religion has changed from Assembly of God to Protestant. Weird, I guess AofG is to radical even for Conservatives.

[suec03]

Wow! Then it has been changed since I checked it Friday. It said Assembly of God then. That is when I remarked that I had already guessed she was probably Assembly of God (Pentecostal) because the Southern Baptists have taken the position that no more women can become Southern Baptist senior pastors and women must submit to their husbands. It is my understanding that the Assembly of God allows women to head congregations as pastors. That would be consistent with a pentecostal mother of five holding a full-time high position in government.

[DoTheMath]

This article is an appropriate companion for Sam Stein's HP article indicating that no one from the McCain campaign checked the archives of Palin's hometown newspaper before putting her on a path to the White House. They are obviously more interested in slanting the facts than in finding out what the facts really are.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/31/mccain-camp-didnt-search_n_122823.html

[jslicer]

BUSTED! I'll lay down $10 that it is a Palin staffer who overheard she the got the nod.

[mediamarv]

I read the Wikipedia side by side pages and was amused to discover one change that really stood out:

Her statement about having tried marijuana but not liking it was suddenly prefaced by the new sentence "she has a lifetime membership in the NRA." Smoking weed is OK if you are a NRA member is what I take away from that change.

McSame is clueless and is just digging a deeper hole. NO pun intended.

[pul]

What does it say about Republican Family Values to have the mother of a 4 month old baby out on the campaign trail? She should be with the child full time for awhile.

[BOFootSoldier]

Some fresh face.

[rcksgl]

I just watched the Maria Bartaromo interview. Why would CNBC allow their 'star' interviewer to be part of an infomercial with a governor who clearly shills for the oil industry? And why would the network be so proud to rerun something with so little journalistic integrity?

[martinchill]

field. day.