It turns out members of the UK government aren’t above a bit of snarky Wikipedia editing to make themselves look better.
Gordon Brown was at the World Economic Forum in Davos when he made the following speech:
I’m reminded of the story of Titian, who’s the great painter who reached the age of 90, finished the last of his nearly 100 brilliant paintings, and he said at the end of it, “I’m finally beginning to learn how to paint,” and that is where we are.
During Prime Minister’s question time, David Cameron, the leader of the Opposition, mocked him openly, saying that Titian had died at 86, adding “The Prime Minister never gets his facts right”. Classy. And wrong. Well, near as anyone can tell, anyway. Though no-one is 100% certain, 91 is the painter’s accepted age at his death.
Embarrassing for Cameron, certainly. Not one to let the facts get in the way of saving face, a user registered at Conservative HQ swiftly edited Titians’s Wikipedia page, pushing his death back a few years.
Since then, the page has been altered, corrected, re-corrected and re-altered at such a rate that Titian is spinning in his page, so to speak.
Of course, as with all trolls, someone is likely to call them out. Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle asked the deputy Speaker of the House of Commons: “I wonder whether you could tell the House whether you have had representations from the leader of the opposition so that he might correct the comments that he made about Titian. Or is it enough in this modern age for the leader of the opposition’s staff simply to alter Wikipedia?”
Source: BBC (Cookies not included)
Published: Feb 12, 2009 03:32 pm