Jan 31, 2006

Congressional revisionists

Congressional staffers have rewritten 1,000 Wikipedia entries on their bosses.

Most glaring change: U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan's staff took out a reference to Meehan's broken pledge to limit his time in office to eight years. Other changes coming from Congressional IP addresses included slurs against Senator Bill Frist and US Rep Eric Cantor.
The changes by Meehan's staff are not as "reprehensible" as inserting derogatory comments in someone else's entry, said Stephen Potts, former director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, which establishes conduct standards for the executive branch.

But the sheer breadth of changes emanating from the House reflects an abuse of public time and equipment, said Potter, now chairman of the Ethics Resource Center.

"That kind of usage, plus the fact that they're changing one person's material, is certainly wrong and ought to be at a minimum the focus of some disciplinary action," he said.

No comments: