Fox News Edits Wikipedia

I just read about a great new tool called wikiscanner that lets you search through edits made to wikipedia pages.

Check out the dispatch article for a list of some humorous wikipedia changes made by the Taft Administration, Rod Parsley and others.

I’ve been playing with it this morning, looking through the edits that originated from IP addresses assigned to the fox news network. Not surprisingly, I found some great stuff.

Shepard Smith

Someone at Fox News REMOVED this entire passage:

- ==Controversies==

- Smith was arrested in Florida in [[November]] [[2000]] for aggravated battery with a motor vehicle. The apparent victim was another reporter. Both Smith and the other reporter were in Florida covering the [[U.S. presidential election, 2000#Florida_election_results|Florida election crisis]] during the [[U.S. presidential election, 2000|2000 United States presidential election]].
-
- In [[2002]], Smith accidentally used the slang sex term [[blow job]] during a broadcast of his nightly [[FOX Report]], causing himself considerable embarrassment. He’d reportedly meant to refer to pop star [[Jennifer Lopez]]’s neighbors as “more likely to give her a [[curbing|curb job]] than a [[block party]],” but misspoke during the last part. Smith immediately apologized to his viewers, and FOX executives indicated their belief that it was an innocent mistake.

Carl Cameron

Someone at Fox News REMOVED this entire passage:

== Journalistic Fraud ==

- Media watchdog groups have documented a number of occassions in which Carl Cameron has fabricated statements by Democratic politicians, seemingly to boost their Republican opponents. Among other quotes, Cameron once claimed that John Kerry labeled [[George W. Bush]] a “warmonger” who intended to create “perpetual war” around the world – no such instance of that criticism ever occurred. In another instance, Cameron fabricated an interview with Kerry in which Kerry referred to Bush as a “Cowboy” and spoke feminently about getting his “nails done”, a more open attempt to humiliate and belittle Kerry, for which Fox News eventually apologized for.

Someone at Fox News CHANGED this:

Cameron has been criticized as being a partisan Republican in his reporting, often interjecting subjective labels on Democrats in order to attack them. In one segment, for example, Cameron attacked three separate Democrats in a time period of only fifteen seconds, deaming them variously, “fairly typical liberal partisan”, “Angry liberal,” and “extremist”.

to this:

Cameron has been criticized by democrats as being a partisan Republican in his reporting.

Brit Hume

Someone at Fox News CHANGED this:

Many groups and commentators, including [[Media Matters for America]], [[Al Franken]], and [[Keith Olbermann]], have remarked that Hume distorted Roosevelt’s views.

to this:

Many groups and commentators, including [[Media Matters for America]], and liberal broadcasters [[Al Franken]], and [[Keith Olbermann]], have claimed that Hume distorted Roosevelt’s views.

And speaking of Al Franken, someone at Fox News also
CHANGED this passage related to the Fox News v Al Franken lawsuit:

Reflecting later on the lawsuit during an interview on the [[National Public Radio]] program ”[[Fresh Air]]” on [[September 3]], [[2003]], Franken said that Fox’s case against him was “literally laughed out of court” and that “wholly (holy) without merit” is a good characterization of Fox News itself.

to this:

Reflecting later on the lawsuit during an interview on the liberal [[National Public Radio]] program ”[[Fresh Air]]” on [[September 3]], [[2003]], Franken said that Fox’s case against him was the best thing to happen to his book sales.