The Blog P. I., otherwise known as William Beutler (founder and ex-editor of the Hotline's Blogometer) looks at the Wikipedia story and offers some advice for Gil Gutknecht:
This begs the question of whether Gil Gutknecht has an internet strategist. Lefty Blogisota has in the past considered the weaknesses of his campaign website--see Minvolved's fine post on the subject---but we haven't considered the Congressman's internet strategy. Is there one?
Beulter's conclusion:
Did the Gutknecht people really think Wikipedians would prefer to hear about his family history and church attendance instead of, you know, the details of his government service, which is what qualifies to be listed in Wikipedia in the first place? Many people who are what Wikipedia would term “non-notable” try to write pages about themselves; these are deleted as “vanity” pages. I’m going to guess it’s less common that “notable” figures seek to turn their own entries into vanity pages.
Gutknecht deserves all the bad press he gets for this, even more than the geniuses who came before him. Well, maybe a bit less than includes Wikipedia’s own founder, Jimmy Wales.
Of course it was unethical to do and idiotic to imagine they wouldn’t be caught. But it was also their very disregard for Wikipedia’s customs that all but guaranteed they would be called out, and quickly. If they’d had the sense to edit from an off-site computer, or bother to create a User ID, or to make subtler changes, it’s very possible they’d have gotten away with their changes, at least for awhile, and likely escaped public attention entirely.
I’m all for wider web literacy, but to a certain extent, widespread ignorance has the unintended consequence of keeping people honest.
MnPublius feels Gutknecht's pain (Wikipedia version):
Looks like Gil is hopping on Norm Coleman's bandwagon by editing his entry in Wikipedia:
Now Gutknecht, in effect, tried to expunge a reminder of a 12-year term-limit he imposed on himself in 1995.
Page histories available on Wikipedia show that Gutknecht's office tried twice -- July 24 and Aug. 14 -- to remove a 128-word entry on him and replace it with a more flattering 315-word entry taken from his official congressional biography. [Strib]
I think Gil's getting a little ahead of himself here; for that 12 year pledge to be a big deal he has to get reelected first (give to Tim!!!). Hey, this kind of reminds me of another Republican candidate's attempt to revise history to make himself look better....
Vox Verax feels Gutknecht's pain (pork check version):
Gosh, it's just one problem after another for Gil Gutknecht. After sitting on the following story for a long time, the blog Blanked-Out has finally published info it has uncovered questioning the congressman's support for family pork producers
The Daily Sandwich in Boston picks up the Wikpedia story.
Kid Oakland helps spread MN-01 blogtales on his site for local blogs in hot races.
The Conservative Fool names Gutknecht "Conservative Fool of the Day." Congratulations, dude!
REWARD COMPETENCE
And of course, BSP asks everyone to give Tim Walz some spare change.
There are a few members of Congress with blog- and Internet-savvy communications aides. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) probably chief among them, at least on the GOP side. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) certainly gets the blogs, too.
But I seriously doubt Gutknecht actually has anyboy designated as an Internet strategist -- more likely, he relied on his CoS, spokesperson or younger staffers who would be expected to "get" Wikipedia -- but pretty clearly do not.
Posted by: WWB | August 17, 2006 at 07:35 PM