Case in point. Here is a bit from a posting by Nigel Calder on his blog in which he points out that his Wikipedia entry is strangely distorted to emphasize one climate prediction from 1980 which in fact isn't too bad. But it differs from the politically correct opinion so he is being pilloried.
I point to the Nigel Calder post because of this bit that warns us how fanatics can get their hands on Wikipedia and bend it to their evil plots:
One person in the nine-member Realclimate.org team — U.K. scientist and Green Party activist William Connolley — would take on particularly crucial duties.Having a Green Party activist who writes for "RealClimate" is not what I would consider to be "objective" writing and/or editing. This is sad. Hopefully the powers-that-be at Wikipedia notice this egregious situation and correct it. Those who take editorial positions in Wikipedia should make solemn oaths to be fair and neutral and to set aside their particular prejudices for the greater good of humankind.
Connolley took control of all things climate in the most used information source the world has ever known – Wikipedia. Starting in February 2003, just when opposition to the claims of the band members were beginning to gel, Connolley set to work on the Wikipedia site. He rewrote Wikipedia’s articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling. On Feb. 14, he began to erase the Little Ice Age; on Aug.11, the Medieval Warm Period. In October, he turned his attention to the hockey stick graph. He rewrote articles on the politics of global warming and on the scientists who were skeptical of the band. Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer, two of the world’s most distinguished climate scientists, were among his early targets, followed by others that the band especially hated, such as Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, authorities on the Medieval Warm Period.
All told, Connolley created or rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles. His control over Wikipedia was greater still, however, through the role he obtained at Wikipedia as a website administrator, which allowed him to act with virtual impunity. When Connolley didn’t like the subject of a certain article, he removed it — more than 500 articles of various descriptions disappeared at his hand. When he disapproved of the arguments that others were making, he often had them barred — over 2,000 Wikipedia contributors who ran afoul of him found themselves blocked from making further contributions. Acolytes whose writing conformed to Connolley’s global warming views, in contrast, were rewarded with Wikipedia’s blessings. In these ways, Connolley turned Wikipedia into the missionary wing of the global warming movement.
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