NYT: Campaign operative suspected of heavily padding Palin's "Wikipedia" entry

[Bluebear]

IN the 24 hours before the McCain campaign put the finishing touches on its surprise announcement Friday that Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska would be the Republican vice presidential candidate, one Wikipedia user was putting the finishing touches on her biography on the site.

Beginning at 2 a.m Eastern time on Thursday, a Wikipedia user with the name YoungTrigg began an overhaul of the article, adding compelling stories about her upbringing, including that “she earned the nickname ‘Sarah Barracuda’ because of her intense play” as point guard for her high school basketball team and that she and her father “would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school.”...

In total, YoungTrigg — whose user name is a reference to Ms. Palin’s infant son, Trig — made 30 “edits” to the article, all positive and largely unnoticed, since they came at a time when few were discussing her as a possible running mate of Senator John McCain’s.

The coincidence of the user’s name, and the sudden spurt of activity just before news broke of Mr. McCain’s choice, has raised suspicions that YoungTrigg was a campaign operative tasked to make sure that her Wikipedia article was ready for prime time, much as handlers have been assigned to do the same for the candidate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/technology/01link.html?ref=politics

[gateley]

1. Well, gotta give them credit, since most people, after the "WHO?" would

have headed to Wiki.

Has anyone challenged the "edits"?

[Bluebear]

2. 'she and her father “would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school.”

Good frigging gravy, then she skinned and butchered it, put it up as jerky for the long cold winter, and did her English homework all before the bus picked her up at 7.

[ticapnews]

4. The edits were subtle

Nothing really to "challenge." They took out some unflattering news stories about her and replaced them with more positive ones. They added a bunch of personal stuff (the basketball, the beauty queen, the 3AM hunting trips).

This was pointed out on Kos Saturday and "YoungTrigg" has been called on it. Last I saw, much of the stuff that was removed has been added back, but the page looks nothing like it did this time last week. Lots more information has been added, even since the edits by the campaign.

[symbolman]

3. Go to my site

http://www.takebackthemedia.com

I scooped the NYTimes by DAYS.. Idiots..

Her Wiki was Savaged more than A Thousand times..the whole Matanuska Milk Maid fuckup got folded into some other lies.. She can't even run a Dairy Farm, and GAGGED the farmers there..

Cute..

[Alexander]

5. It might even be the Palins themselves.

Maybe they're too stupid to figure out that people can trace things like that.

[symbolman]

6. My wife who is Real Tech Savvy says it was most probably Her

Or someone up there she knows.. Remember they HAD NOT VETTED Her yet, if you can believe it.. :)

[Bluebear]

9. “I am not Sarah Palin. I think it is obvious that I am not the five-month-old Trig Paxson Van Palin"

From the article.

Of course it was her :)

[krkaufman]

18. Or just Republican operation, knowing the initial news coverage is what will matter most...

... and if they can get a positive launch for the first week, then they're a long way towards making it to the election.

[Arrowhead2k1]

7. This means she's a bigger phony then anyone ever imagined.

I'd be worried if she was actually honestly remarkable, but as more details come out she appears to be anything but honest or remarkable. In 3 months, she'll be back in Alaska, to become a living relic of a brief footnote in Presedential campaign history.

[IndianaGreen]

16. She is as phony as her fifth pregancy was!

She was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it.

[krkaufman]

19. Well, the editing effort helps to tarnish the "transparency" talking point. nt

[AzDar]

8. YoungTrigg = A fat, pasty balding white fascist also known as Turdblossom.

Just a guess....

[VolcanoJen]

13. YoungTrig = Governor Mooseburger's husband.

That's my knee-jerk suspicion, anyway.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

10. This is newsworthy, unlike all the babyshit

Any DUer or anyone else capture the unscrubbed page.

This woman is a moran and a cheap crook of the highest order.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Are they so stupid think that wouldn't be found out?

:rofl:

[Bluebear]

12. Yes. They are.

:)

[depakid]

15. I don't think they cared

Once the all the journos went through the seeded wiki entry and put out their initial stories, the "damage" was done. First impressions are much more important than retractions or revelations like this.

[krkaufman]

20. Yep. nt

[Fleshdancer]

14. So they knew of the ethics investigation and chose her anyway before vetting her?

Um, that's weird. :wtf:

[krkaufman]

17. Make-believe Mavericks... what Palin and McCain have in common nt