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Wikipedia Changes Editing Rules as Users Fight Over Definition of ‘Recession’

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Wikipedia has implemented restrictions for new and unregistered users who try to edit its page about recession. According to The Hill, new users and anonymous users will be able to make changes to the recession page, but their edits will be subject to review from volunteer editors.

The definition of recession has been under intense debate since last week, when the Commerce Department revealed U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an annualized rate of 0.9% during the second quarter of 2022. This followed a 1.6% contraction in the first quarter with an annualized rate of 1.6%.

Traditionally, two consecutive quarters of decreasing GDP — which measures the goods and services a country produces — is considered a recession. However, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has denied the U.S. is in a recession. During a recent appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Yellen stated, “This is not an economy that’s in recession. But we’re in a period of transition in which growth is slowing and that’s necessary and appropriate and we need to be growing at a steady and sustainable pace.” President Biden has similarly said that the current economic situation “doesn’t sound like a recession.”

Despite the common understanding of recession, there is no formal, universally accepted definition of recession. As The Hill notes, the National Bureau of Economic Research is the organization tasked with officially declaring a recession. The NBER defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.” NBER often waits until long after a recession has begun to declare that a recession is indeed under way, according to Fortune. (Read more from “Wikipedia Changes Editing Rules as Users Fight Over Definition of ‘Recession'” HERE)

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WATCH: Wikipedia Co-Founder Tells Carlson He’s ‘Embarrassed’ by Site He Created

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In an interview Thursday for Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger stated he was embarrassed about helping found the site given its increasing left-wing bias. Noting it helps shape the understanding many Americans have of the world, Carlson asked Sanger what could be done to fix the problems on Wikipedia, but Sanger doubted it was possible to fix the site from the inside. He instead argued for creating alternative sources, noting his most recent effort: the Encyclosphere.

Sanger also apologized to those individuals whose reputations have been harmed by Wikipedia because of his role in founding it, though Carlson also noted Google’s role in promoting the site. Carlson himself has been one subject of smear campaigns on the site. . .

At the beginning of Carlson’s segment on Wikipedia, he commented that, in the years since Sanger ceased involvement with Wikipedia, it “has gone on to become the world’s single most important source of history — of information about the world” and it was therefore “a problem that we ought to pay attention to when Larry Sanger himself says that Wikipedia is no longer a reliable source of honest information.” He noted Sanger “says the editors of Wikipedia use highly politicized sources and block dissenting news outlets from contributing” adding “once again, that’s a problem for all of us.” . . .

Ending the segment, Carlson remarked to Sanger: “It must kill you as one of the people who founded Wikipedia, which has become this central part of our culture of our intellectual life, weird as it is to say, to watch what has happened to it.” He asked how Sanger feels about his “role in creating this thing that misleads the country” to which Sanger stated he was embarrassed. Sanger noted he has been a leading Wikipedia critic for over a decade and tried various things to improve on it. Sanger added he was “sorry to all the people whose reputations have been sullied by what I got started 20 years ago.” Carlson noted to Sanger that “Google has helped a lot by promoting Wikipedia” in response. (Read more from “Wikipedia Co-Founder Tells Carlson He’s ‘Embarrassed’ by Site He Created (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Wikipedia Co-Founder BLASTS Site for Left-Wing Bias: ‘The Word for It Is Propaganda’ (VIDEO)

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By Fox News. Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger continued his criticism this week of the online encyclopedia that he helped create, citing the page on President Biden as an example of its leftist bias.

“You can trust it to give a reliably establishment point of view on pretty much everything. Can you trust it always to give you the truth? Well, it depends on what you think the truth is,” Sanger said Wednesday on LockdownTV with Freddie Sayers.

Sanger feels Wikipedia has changed considerably since he founded it alongside Jimmy Wales in 2001 and has been a critic for more than a decade. He said the site is no longer committed to neutrality and doesn’t feature different points of view.

“Wikipedia is known, now, by everyone to have a lot of influence in the world … so there is a very big, nasty, complex game being played behind the scenes to make the articles say what somebody wants them to say,” Sanger said, adding the site has a liberal bias.

“The Biden article, if you look at it, has very little by way of the concerns that Republicans have had about him,” Sanger said. “So if you want to have anything remotely resembling the Republican point of view about Biden, you’re not going to get it from the article.” (Read more from “Wikipedia Co-Founder BLASTS Site for Left-Wing Bias: ‘The Word for It Is Propaganda’ (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Wikipedia Co-Founder Says Site Is Now ‘Propaganda’ for Left-Leaning ‘Establishment’

By New York Post. Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has warned that the website can no longer be trusted — insisting it is now just “propaganda” for the left-leaning “establishment.” . . .

Now, he insisted, conservative voices are “sternly warned if not kicked out” if they try to add a different take on establishment views — which Sanger deemed “propaganda.”

“You can’t cite Fox News on socio-political issues. It’s just banned now,” he insisted of the apparent clampdown on respected conservative voices.

“It means that if a controversy does not appear in the mainstream centre-left media, then it’s not going to appear on Wikipedia,” he said. . .

“If only one version of the facts is allowed then that gives a huge incentive to wealthy and powerful people to seize control of things like Wikipedia in order to shore up their power,” he said. (Read more from “Wikipedia Co-Founder Says Site Is Now ‘Propaganda’ for Left-Leaning ‘Establishment’” HERE)

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Wikipedia Co-Founder: Site’s Commitment to Neutrality Is ‘Long Gone’

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An article about Wikipedia published last Thursday on the Fox News website examined the left-wing bias of the online encyclopedia. Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia, stated in an interview for the article: “The days of Wikipedia’s robust commitment to neutrality are long gone.” Fox also interviewed economics professor Bryan Caplan regarding the slanted coverage of communism and socialism on their Wikipedia pages, notably the omission of atrocities carried out by communist governments.

Fox cited other critics of the site and its biased handling of left-wing ideologies. Sanger previously published a blog post criticizing Wikipedia for its left-wing bias, declaring the site’s neutrality policy “dead” due to bias.

In the Fox piece by Maxim Lott, Wikipedia is noted as having received less scrutiny than the other Big Tech firms. However, the piece further notes these tech firms, such as Google, also rely heavily on the site and Wikipedia itself is one of the most popular sites globally. The report follows this by reporting: “critics – including Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger – tell Fox News that many Wikipedia pages have become merely left-wing advocacy essays.”

Sanger is quoted by Fox as stating: “Wikipedia’s ideological and religious bias is real and troubling, particularly in a resource that continues to be treated by many as an unbiased reference work.” Sanger also told Fox “the deck is too stacked on Wikipedia for it to ever be salvaged” and he has instead focused on helping facilitate the spread of alternative online encyclopedias through his Encyclosphere project. Those efforts are complicated by Big Tech’s reliance on Wikipedia in their campaign against “fake news” online in keeping with messaging suggested to Wikipedia’s owners by a public relations firm run by the Clinton Foundation’s Head of Communications.

Fox News cites the Wikipedia articles on socialism and communism as examples of leftist bias. While both delve into leftist theory, they also covered each ideology’s history almost completely ignoring the brutality and authoritarianism of many proclaimed socialist or communist regimes. Regarding the Soviet Union, one section states Soviet rule “saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century” with only a brief mention of “the excesses of Stalin’s regime” not mentioning the famines and mass-killings it entailed. On Asia, Mao’s reign in China is essentially unmentioned, while mentioning Indonesia’s Suharto killing hundreds of thousands to suppress leftists. (Read more from “Wikipedia Co-Founder: Site’s Commitment to Neutrality Is ‘Long Gone’” HERE)

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Wikipedia Exposed as a Blackmail Racket That Does This to Small Businesses

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Wikipedia-Logo-on-BlackNatural News has long documented the scandal, debauchery and bogusness surrounding the “online encyclopedia” known as Wikipedia – and each time we’ve been proven correct that the media giant is little more than a corrupt operation that has always attempted to downplay or hide its seedy, shady side.

As reported by the UK’s Independent newspaper, hundreds of small British businesses and minor celebrities have been targeted by a high-level blackmail scam that was orchestrated by “rogue editors” at Wikipedia. (Side note: We at Natural News believe if this is happening in Britain, it’s a safe bet to assume it could be happening in others in other nations – just saying.)

The Independent further reported:

The victims, who range from a wedding photographer in Dorset to a high-end jewellery shop in Shoreditch, east London, faced demands for hundreds of pounds to “protect” or update Wikipedia pages about their businesses. A former Britain’s Got Talent contestant was among dozens of individuals targeted.

Wikipedia officials say they have taken action against what the media entity described as the “co-ordinated group” of fraudsters by blocking 381 accounts. They also said that the accounts were controlled by Wikipedia users who had offered to change some articles about companies and private individuals in exchange for money. In some of those cases, requests for money were veiled blackmail threats, Wikipedia said.

(Read more from “Wikipedia Exposed as a Blackmail Racket That Does This to Small Businesses” HERE)

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Wikipedia Bans House Staffers From Editing Pages

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Following the launch of the Twitter account @congressedits, which shows edits to Wikipedia made from the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses associated with Congresss, Wikipedia has announced a 10-day ban on House staffers using that IP address to edit pages anonymously.

Staffers, inspired that their Wikipedia edits would subsequently be broadcast to the 25,000-plus followers of @congressedits, were making unusual edits to various pages, prompting the temporary ban. House staffers that have official accounts on Wikipedia are still permitted to edit pages.

Read more from this story HERE.

Teen Worker at Gosnell Abortion Clinic: “They Looked Like Babies”

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

By Steven Ertelt. Testimony has concluded for the week in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell. But, late Thursday, members of the jury heard from a teenage girl who found an odd work-study program at his clinic.

Ashley Baldwin, a 15-year-old sophomore at University City High School, found herself employed at Gosnell’s abortion clinic and, despite no medical license or training, working alongside him performing gruesome late-term abortions.

From an AP report on the testimony:

Baldwin landed the job because her mother already worked there.

She was paid, and in no time went from answering phones to doing ultrasounds, administering intravenous medicine, and, ultimately, assisting in abortions performed by her mentor, Kermit Gosnell.

Now 22 and the mother of a 2-year-old son, Baldwin on Thursday told a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury hearing Gosnell’s murder trial of her unusual hands-on medical apprenticeship. Read more from this story HERE.

Shocking Photo Shows Empty Media Benches at Kermit Gosnell Trial

By Steven Ertelt. A shocking photo of empty benches at the trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell is making the rounds today and it exemplifies the lack of media coverage and attention to the case.

The photo was featured on the religion blog Pathoes, which decried the lack of coverage and focus on the trial outside the pro-life and conservative communities. Mollie Hemingway summed up the lack of media attention this way:

I’ve been writing about media coverage of abortion for many years. And so have many others. If you haven’t read David Shaw’s “Abortion Bias Seeps Into The News,” published in the Los Angeles Times back in 1990, you should. That report also explains why we cover the topic here at GetReligion.

But the thing is that I’m getting kind of sick of pointing out egregious bias only to see things not just remain bad but get worse. Just think, in the last year, we saw the media drop any pretense of objectivity and bully the Susan G. Komen Foundation into funding Planned Parenthood. And then we had how many months of coverage focused on someone calling a birth control activist a bad name? And who can forget every pro-life person in the country being asked to respond to Todd Akin’s stupid remarks about rape?

So our abortion-drenched media would certainly want to cover what is arguably the country’s most horrific serial murder trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, right? Well, far from the front-page, top of the news, daily update coverage you rightfully would expect, it’s been downplayed. Majorly downplayed. Read more from this story HERE.

Wikipedia Considers Deleting Entry Regarding Kermit Gosnell

By Steven Ertelt. Wikipedia, the online dictionary and research web site utilized by millions of people every day, is considering deleting the entry associated with Kermit Gosnell, the infamous abortion practitioner on trial for murder.

“This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia’s deletion policy,” a Wikipedia headline reads in red at the top of the Gosnell entry. “Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article’s entry on the Articles for deletion page.”

The Wikipedia note instructs its web site editors, “Feel free to edit the article, but the article must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed.”

Wikipedia’s deletion policy includes 14 reasons for deletion ranging from “2.Copyright violations and other material violating Wikipedia’s non-free content criteria” to “9.Articles that breach Wikipedia’s policy on biographies of living persons” to articles about hoaxes.

One of the reasons “this article is being considered for deletion?” Read more from this story HERE.

Russia joins international effort to limit Internet freedom; pushing bill with similarities to SOPA, China’s firewall

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Two months after Vladimir Putin once again assumed the post of Russian president, the long-feared crackdown on his critics appears to have begun. The internet bill due to be considered by parliament on Wednesday is, say activists, the latest sign of growing repression of civil freedom in Russia.

The bill calls for the creation of a federal website “nolist”. Internet providers and site owners would be forced to shut down any websites on this list. According to Wikipedia authors on Tuesday, the bill will “lead to the creation of a Russian analogue to China’s great firewall”.

The bill’s backers in Putin’s United Russia party argue that the amendments to the country’s information legislation are aimed at child pornography and sites that promote drug use and teen suicide.

But critics, including the Russian-language Wikipedia, say the legislation could be used to boost government censorship over the internet.

In protest, the Russian-language Wikipedia site shut down for 24 hours on Tuesday. The Wikipedia logo was crossed out with a black rectangle, and the words “imagine a world without free knowledge” appeared underneath.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com