Monday, September 17, 2012

Denis MacShane Doesn't Like Wikipedia

It's an absolute disgrace apparently, asking a Justice Minister this question:
"What comment will the Minister make on the fact that Wikipedia publishes biographies of people that are then regularly amended to include untrue, defamatory and unpleasant language?

"Does he think that Wikipedia should inform those people whose biographies have been re-written in such a way that causes them damage and then allow a truthful statement to be made?
"At the moment, Wikipedia is an absolute disgrace, allowing the British National party, fascists, anti-Semites and other extremists to alter people's personal entries."
 Wikipedia should employ an army of staff to write to the subjects of articles every time it is edited?

There is some irony in Denis MacShameless complaining about defamation despite regularly smearing his opponents as Nazis, racists or supporters of human trafficking. It appears likely that he upset about some of the information contained in his Wiki-biography- the examples of lying, corruption and bullying are certainly unpleasant but I cannot see anything that is untrue.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

MacShane was publicly criticised by the Association of Political Thought for wrongly accusing London School of Economics professor of political and gender theory Anne Phillips of supporting prostitution and filling the minds of her students with "poisonous drivel".

Hang on. "Wrongly" ? Don't know about prostitution, but a professor of gender theory is SUPPOSED to fill the minds of her students with poisonous drivel.

Mark said...

The entry as it stands gives the full flavour of the man- a loathsome creep.

'He was fired by the BBC after using a fake name to call the radio phone-in programme he worked on at the time. During the call, MacShane accused leading Conservative politician Reginald Maudling of being a crook, with the MP threatening to sue as a result.[5]'

A textbook example of pot-kettle-black

'However, his position was considered to be untenable after comments he made to a meeting of Durham Labour Students[13] in which he described Gordon Brown's five economic tests as, "a bit of a giant red herring." When contacted by The Scotsman newspaper about whether or not he made the comments he responded: "Jesus Christ, no. I mean, ‘red herring’ is not one of my favourite metaphors. If you think any Labour MP saying the Prime Minister’s most important policy is a red herring, then they would not survive long in the job."[14] However, he had been recorded on a dictaphone, and the tape was played on both the Today Programme and BBC News 24.'

He's shown here giving a textbook 'non denial denial'- and on one of the few subjects (Euro membership for the UK) where Brown was absolutely correct.

Ross said...

Mark- I didn't know he'd been sacked by the BBC, you should update his Wikipedia entry.

Anon- Well yeah.