Wikipedia Leftist bias?

 

Here is my ‘Letter to the Editor’ submitted to the Washington Times in response to today’s article claiming Wikipedia leftist bias.   Co-founder says Wikipedia's neutrality 'long gone,' cites leftist bias - Washington Times

Below my letter is my comment on their website linked to this article.  Note that their comments section holds responses ‘under consideration’ before being published on their website.   

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Dear Editor,

To conservative eyes Wikipedia is bias. To realist’s eyes, it is bias in both directions.

Wikipedia entries for "Capitalism" do not cover the profoundly damaging and deadly aspects of unregulated/unenforceable rules of global capitalism - such as 'free trade' or the greatest flaws of democracy and the US Constitution.

China's theft of US intellectual property …and free access to other dual use technologies increasingly threatens US national security.  There are no ‘rule of law’ enforceable controls.  Only war, sanctions that can be more deadly than war – or start one, and diplomacy are existing options.  Our 'democratic republic' and other democracy 'systems' (using all three) have allowed centuries of slavery, genocide of native populations, expensive undeclared wars, sanctions more deadly than wars, and unenforceable violations of human rights within -and outside of their borders. Not to mention failing to defend against infectious diseases within their own borders. Disease that were inevitable and preventable with a 'universal health care system'. The largest democracy in the world - India -still has more people (mostly children) dying daily of easily preventable malnutrition and infectious diseases...as it did - before this global pandemic. Neither capitalism or democracy has put the protection of human health, freedom, and security as the highest priority. Profit and popular desires remain the primary driver within these two inherently flawed systems - regardless of all the good things they have delivered. And you won't read any of that in Wikipedia. The current crisis in Texas is the best example of the capitalist and democratic system ignoring this fundamental need.

Chuck

Chuck Woolery, Former Chair
United Nations Association, Council of Organizations
315 Dean Dr., Rockville, MD 20851
Cell:240-997-2209   chuck@igc.org

“Co-founder says Wikipedia's neutrality 'long gone,' cites leftist bias”

By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Sunday, February 21, 2021

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger is criticizing the site’s left-wing bias, saying the popular online encyclopedia has become an irretrievably broken platform for socialism.

“The days of Wikipedia’s robust commitment to neutrality are long gone,” Mr. Sanger told Fox News in a new interview. “Wikipedia’s ideological and religious bias is real and troubling, particularly in a resource that continues to be treated by many as an unbiased reference work.”

Mr. Sanger, 52, co-founded the site with Jimmy Wales in January 2001. He said Wikipedia’s turn away from neutrality is “disheartening.”

Wikipedia, which says “anyone can edit” its entries, is one of the most-used websites in the world. Google prioritizes its placement in search results.

But Mr. Sanger tweeted that leftist activists gradually move in “to take control of any influential institution not explicitly conservative … and they just work harder, and in more subtle ways, on the ones that are explicitly conservative.”

“And then when the rest of the media and tech became insanely far left, Wikipedia naturally went along with the trend,” he tweeted.

The Fox analysis cited the two main pages for “Socialism” and “Communism” that span 28,000 words but lack any discussion of the genocides committed by socialist and communist regimes, in which tens of millions of people were murdered and starved.

“The omission of large-scale mass murder, slave labor, and man-made famines is negligent and deeply misleading,” economics professor Bryan Caplan, who has studied the history of communism, told Fox News.

In a blog post, Mr. Sanger said examples of bias on Wikipedia “have become embarrassingly easy to find,” pointing to the entries for former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

The Barack Obama article completely fails to mention many well-known scandals: Benghazi, the IRS scandal, the AP phone records scandal, and Fast and Furious, to say nothing of Solyndra or the Hillary Clinton email server scandal — or, of course, the developing ‘Obamagate’ story in which Obama was personally involved in surveilling Donald Trump,” Mr. Sanger posted in May 2020. “A fair article about a major political figure certainly must include the bad with the good.”

He said the entry about Mr. Trump shows that Wikipedia’s neutrality “is a joke.”

“Just for example, there are 5,224 none-too-flattering words in the ‘Presidency’ section,” he wrote. “By contrast, the following ‘Public Profile’ (which the Obama article entirely lacks), ‘Investigations,’ and ‘Impeachment’ sections are unrelentingly negative, and together add up to some 4,545 words — in other words, the controversy sections are almost as long as the sections about his presidency.”

He said Wikipedia frequently asserts “in its own voice, that many of Trump’s statements are ‘false.’ Well, perhaps they are. But even if they are, it is not

exactly neutral for an encyclopedia article to say so, especially without attribution.”

The Wikimedia Foundation said in a statement that Wikipedia “is a living, breathing project, and is always evolving just as our shared understanding of a topic does.” It said the foundation does not directly control the content on the site, which is written by volunteer editors.

The spokesperson also pointed to a Harvard study that “shows how the more people edit an article, the more neutral it becomes,” Fox News reported.

My comment on this online… waiting for approval as of 11:30 am.

I'm guessing the Wikipedia entries for "Capitalism" do not cover the profoundly damaging and deadly aspects of unregulated/unenforceable rules of global capitalism such as 'free trade' or the greatest flaws of democracy and the US Constitution. China's theft of US intellectual property …and free access to other dual use technologies increasingly threatens US national security without any enforceable controls. Our 'democratic republic' and other democracy 'systems' have allowed centuries of slavery, genocide of native populations, expensive undeclared wars, sanctions more deadly than wars, and unenforceable violations of human rights within -and outside of their borders. Not to mention failing to defend against infectious diseases within their own borders. Disease that were inevitable and preventable with a 'universal health care system'. The largest democracy in the world - India -still has more people (mostly children) dying daily of easily preventable malnutrition and infectious diseases...as it did - before this global pandemic. Neither capitalism or democracy has put the protection of human health, freedom, and security as the highest priority. Profit and popular desires remain the primary driver within these two inherently flawed systems - regardless of all the good things they have delivered. And you won't read any of that in Wikipedia. The current crisis in Texas is the best example of the capitalist and democratic system ignoring this fundamental need.