FWD from another mailing list, ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: --- Date: Tue, May 14, 2013 at 2:31 PM Subject: [---] Missing details: the sanitisation of Tom Waterhouse's Wikipedia page To: ---
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/missing-details-the-sanitisation-of-tom-waterhouses-wikipedia-page-20130514-2jjfh.html > May 14, 2013 - 1:07PM > James Robertson and Melissa Davey > > He claimed vindication in Monday's Racing NSW inquiry, but staff for Tom > Waterhouse have sometimes preferred to give the truth a nudge, rather than > presume it will prevail on its own steam. > > Mr Waterhouse's employees have been sanitising the bookmaker's Wikipedia > page, removing references to parliamentary inquiries into the march of sports > betting into lounge rooms and even his turn on the Dancing With the Stars > program. > > While I'm not actually across the page, I know that staff do make changes if > there is something defamatory, illegal or not true on there. > > Perhaps the most glaring omission, however, is that the More Joyous racing > inquiry does not rate a mention on the page. > > There is also a warning at the top of the entry. > > "A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with > its subject," a disclaimer reads. > > "It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, > particularly neutral point of view." > > Mr Waterhouse said that he has never directly ordered his staff to remove or > edit any content from the page. > > "I've only asked them to make sure [the content] abides by what is legal," he > said. > > "While I'm not actually across the page, I know that staff do make changes if > there is something defamatory, illegal or not true on there. > > "Of course, in those situations, they have to take that [material] down." > > He said there was no specific piece of information on the page that he had > seen and asked staff to edit or remove and that they did this of their own > accord. > > Anyone can use Wikipedia and start editing pages of the site. Other users can > discuss, dispute or reverse those edits. And Wikipedians have long held > suspicious about the Waterhouse page. > > "Sounds like it was taken straight from an advertising brochure," wrote user > SpencerCollins last September. > > He may have been tipped off by the inclusion of such detail as the fact that > Mr Waterhouse was a high school prefect and the following, included under the > heading "branding". > > "Waterhouse invested considerably in marketing and advertising, adopting a > distinct style guide comprising of black and white imagery with splashes of > aquamarine." > > Those edits were made by the user GChinaP. > > "He [Waterhouse] asked me to write up something for Wikipedia," Gilbert > Chinapen, who works on TomWaterhouse.com, confirmed to Fairfax. > > Another user, Angustommiepragnell, made dozens of edits to the page, removing > material that was claimed to be defamatory or incorrect, but in fact had been > widely reported. The user removed references to Mr Waterhouse's refusal to > appear before a parliamentary inquiry into gambling in sport. The phrasing > was later changed to "declined an invitation". > > Also left out is that Mr Waterhouse was benched by Channel Nine's NRL > commentary team in March, following a public backlash against gambling being > incorporated into live sport. > > Angus Pragnell, the marketing campaign manager for TomWaterhouse.com, > declined to comment. > > References to Waterhouse's father, who did six months' periodic detention > after being found guilty of false swearing, were also edited by a user called > Suzanne888. > > The ongoing omissions and changes prompted one frustrated editor to write: > "Waterhouse staff such as Angus Pragnell and Gilbert Chinapen shouldn't be > editing/'sanitising' this entry!" > > Later edits to the page included the removal of references to Mr Waterhouse's > highly enthusiastic but ultimately unsuccessful routines on Dancing With the > Stars. He was eliminated in the second round of the show's 2006 season. > > It's not the first time changes to Wikipedia pages have been linked back to > their subjects. > > In February Fairfax reported that Occupy Melbourne's official Wikipedia page > was edited twice by a person using a City of Melbourne computer to remove > contentious words in the lead-up to the re-election of lord mayor Robert > Doyle last year. > > In August 2007 when John Howard was prime minister, Fairfax reported that > staff in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet were caught editing > Wikipedia to remove details that might be damaging to the government. > > ABC TV's Media Watch then reported that staff at several media organisations, > including Fairfax Media, were found editing their own and others' Wikipedia > pages, with some edits heaping abuse on rivals. > > with Ben Grubb _______________________________________________ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
