And Now, the Wiki Campaign

The Democratic primary for governor of Georgia is being rocked by allegations of dirty tricks. The tricks in question: Selective editing of rivals' Wikipedia biographies.

Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor's campaign is accusing the campaign manager for Democratic rival Secretary of State Cathy Cox of altering an online biography of Taylor to add his son's drunk driving arrest.

The information on Fletcher Taylor is not inaccurate. He was behind the wheel in an August 2005 accident in South Carolina that left his 22-year-old best friend dead. … Revisions to the lieutenant governor's profile on Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia, can be traced to an Internet address that is registered to [Cox campaign manager Morton] Brilliant, according to the Taylor camp.

First of all: Morton Brilliant? Secondly, how long will it take for politicians to figure out the internet? A few months ago, a Republican blogger logged into facebook.com to grab photos of a Democratic candidate's 18-year old daughter drinking beer and send them to the media. As long as these websites are free and the content is user-driven, this is stuff is going to be part of politics. Perhaps we've discovered why the Congress is so hot on net neutrality.

Comments

[thoreau]

Maybe we should create wikipedia pages for ourselves. We could cut and paste Kim Jong Il's official biography, changing the name so that we sound as accomplished as the Dear Leader.

And tack on things like "By the age of 5, I had already beaten Chuck Norris at streetfighting. By the age of 18, I had saved the world more often than Jack Bauer. I have won the top prize every year at the North Korean film festival, beating out even the esteemed Dear Leader himself."

[Evan]

Editing a wiki entry to reflect the truth about your son's problems? How could they?!

Posting your address and other information on the internet because, when you were 16, you had sex with your 14 year old girlfriend, were convicted of a "sex crime", and then some crazy fuck tracks you down through that online posting and murders you? Hey, why not?

[mediageek]

HA HA!

I met Hostettler when I was in High School.

[c]

The Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, Andre Bauer, has an awesome MySpace page. Go check it out!

[Rimfax]

This is just the first one to make it to the MSM. Wikipedia is already a political battlezone, though often a surprisingly polite and rational one. It's only a matter of time before politicians in general aggressively embrace viral marketing/anti-marketing on Wikipedia (and other user-driven sites).

[Mark]

Boy, there's nothing low enough for politicians.

I think family member's should be off limits. It should be a political convention of sorts.

Tonly Blair's son was found in the middle of London, drunk, with his pecker hanging out the front of his trousers singing Spandau Ballet tracks (I made up the last two bits up) and the press/opposition had a field day. He was only doing normal kid stuff.

And so what if your son's a drunk driver? Who cares?

[rhywun]

He was only doing normal kid stuff.

The British seem to understand that more than we Yanks, who like to pretend that our kids are little angels who would never do something so horrifyingly life-shattering as drink a beer.

[Douglas Fletcher]

You think the politics thing is crazy on Wikipedia, you should check out the controversies that go on about gardening stuff. You can't figure out if a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable from one day to the next, with all the editing and counter-editing that goes on.

[Mark]

The British seem to understand that more than we Yanks, who like to pretend that our kids are little angels who would never do something so horrifyingly life-shattering as drink a beer.

Possibly. But do not underestimate our ability to behave like hypocritical fuckwits. Especially our press.

We had another recent situation with Cameron, the Conservative Opposition leader, that was very similar to the Clinton inhale episode. Cameron had said that he had a typical college experience and was asked if he had ever used recreational drugs. He put his foot down and said that he, and any politician, should have a right to a private life. Our press went mental and made it out like he was inhaling heroin of hooker's backsides but they're sub-human scum so no surprises there.

I think your family and your formative years belong to you and anyone who makes politics out of it is an asshole. The French are pretty good in this respect.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

The Wiki thing never happened because Dems never do stuff like that.

Wiki tried to kick my cousin off because being the editor-in-chief of MacWorld isn't as important as say, being the editor-in-chief of Reason.

Our buddy at the Lost Liberty Hotel nearly lost his listing at Wiki because the info was overtly political. Meaning a lot of people who read Wiki were not happy with the revenge motive.

[dead_elvis]

Revisions to the lieutenant governor's profile... can be traced to an Internet address that is registered to [Cox campaign manager Morton] Brilliant, according to the Taylor camp

Speaking of not getting the internet...

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Evan, good point. IMO, if you did your time you should be free to go. If you're out on parole or probation, that's another story altogether, as those are substitutes for jail time you're not serving.

[Jim Anderson]

This is the same Morton Brilliant who had a mind-boggling view of electoral "mulligans" back when he worked for Christine Gregoire's WA state gubernatorial campaign.

[Wintermute]

Funny you should mention Dirty Tricks. Hot off the presses.

[Totally Rad MySpacer]

"The Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, Andre Bauer, has an awesome MySpace page."

Wow c, I thought you were joking about Andre Bauer's MySpace page. That is truly a lame profile. Maybe politicians should rethink "figuring out the Internet."