Sunday, August 24, 2008

Hatin' On Wikipedia

Broadway runs east of Seventh Avenue north of 45th Street. Donald Trump owns an office building on Sixth Avenue. Lee Brown, the early 1990s police commissioner who presided over the highest murder rate in the city's history, was a hero in the war against crime.

In what otherwordly New York City can this be true? In the wacky world of Wikipedia, the engine of ignorance "compiled by volunteers" and masquerading as a legitimate reference work. Its unreliability is not exactly news - it's the bane of educators who must teach pupils not to trust it.

For all its popularity, Wikipedia is an agent of intellectual negation, based on the seditious idea that truth is subjective. Let anyone weigh in on the Boer War, or cyclotrons, or hula hoops - surely, the theory goes, if mistakes are made, they'll be promptly corrected by more knowledgeable contributors to the site or by in-house editors. - New York Times

Here is the entire article. What the author doesn't realize is that he can go in and change the inaccuracies. What's he waiting for?!

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