By Shaun Davies and Hal Crawford
ninemsn
Australian enterprises of all descriptions are habitually editing online encyclopedia Wikipedia — and even the newspaper that broke the story of the government's "Wiki-fiddling" is involved.
While Fairfax Media's Sydney Morning Herald crowed about 126 edits made to the encyclopedia by John Howard's office, users within their own Fairfax media group have made more than 1000 edits during the past four years.
These changes by Fairfax Wiki editors include edits to improve the image of a Fairfax business, and derogatory comments about a high-profile journalist and an entertainer.
Wiki-editing tracker Wikiscanner shows that on September 13, 2006, a user from Fairfax's IP address made changes to an entry regarding Fairfax-owned Wollongong paper the Illawarra Mercury.
The original entry read: "The Mercury is jocularly known as ''The Mockery'' among residents of the Illawarra region due to its perceived shallowness of coverage and lack of accuracy. This situation was somewhat rectified after the publication recently won a Walkley Award."
The editor from the Fairfax IP address added the following lines: "The Illawarra Mercury was awarded 2006 PANPA newspaper of the year award in the Dailies & Sundays – 20,000 – 50,000 catagory.
"The judges [sic] comments on the award is: Compelling line up of sections, lift-outs and magazines, strong engagement with a changing community, built on the dependable news base, have all contributed to an outstanding paper."
A user from Fairfax's IP address also edited the Wikipedia entry of Crikey founder Stephen Mayne on May 19, 2006.
"While Mayne pretends to be a journalist he spends a lot of his time in paid activity for people like Telstra, the phone company, and others with a barrow to push. He is a hopeless self-promoter and generally oblivious to what most people regard as ethical behaviour," the editor wrote.
The words "douche bag" were also added to an entry related to Chaser star Andrew Hansen in April this year.
Entries for the Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax CEO David Kirk and John Fairfax Holdings have also been edited, although the changes are relatively minor.
Most edits made from the Fairfax IP address are innocuous — such as changes to comic book authors' pages and information on Bosnia and Herzegovinia.
But precisely the same can be said for most of the 126 edits made by users from the Prime Minister's office, which came in for criticism in newspaper reports this morning.
Twenty-nine of the edits from the Prime Minister's IP address relate to the gang-gang cockatoo. There are also edits on basketballer Andrew Gaze, Jesus and Johnny Cash.
Several edits do relate to politics — in one, a reference to Peter Costello as "Captain Smirk" is deleted.
An entry on mandatory detention has been edited in 2006 to be slightly more favourable for the government.
An editor has added the word "allegedly" to a sentence about the "inhumane conditions of detention". In a sentence that states cruel treatment of refugees helped Howard win the 2001 election, the same editor adds the words "some commentators argue".
Mr Howard denied ordering staff to edit Wikipedia entries, while Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said his staff may have made "factual" editorial changes.
Practice widespread
Nineteen Wikipedia edits have been made from ninemsn's IP address, including five changes to an entry on The Wiggles.
Several small changes were made to an entry on The Catch Up, the now-defunct Nine Network show whose website was hosted by ninemsn.
Qantas employees have made 178 edits. One seemingly disgruntled employee vandalised CEO Geoff Dixon's page in April this year.
"[Dixon] is believed to participate in trans-species sexual activities. May or may not be human," wrote the editor, who also accused Dixon of "destroying the lives of Qantas employees".
The entry was quickly changed back.
Australian Interactive Media Industry Association CEO John Butterworth said he could not see what the fuss was about.
"Generally with Wikis, we've got to understand that one of the strengths is that people can do this, but it's also one of the weaknesses," Mr Butterworth said.
"Human beings, being human beings, we're a very unpredictable species.
"A lot of this stuff's pretty banal."
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