Monday, January 08, 2007

Wikipedia and "Unity for Gallaudet Movement" - an error?

Image Hosted by ImageShack.usI was putzing around and came across Wikipedia on Gallaudet University and noticed that the section on "Unity for Gallaudet Movement" has a warning label saying

"The neutrality of this section is disputed."

No kidding. Not only is this neutrality is in dispute do I see a reference link [1] after a blurb in the very first paragraph,

Gallaudet University is a federally chartered, quasi-governmental [1]

If you click on the link in the reference section it leads to a familiar person's website containing the pdf file "Gallaudet_is_not_private" which, ironically so, goes against all notions that Gallaudet University *IS* a private university, rather than a "quasi-governmental" institution, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Gallaudet University, authorized by the Education of the Deaf Act of 1986 (EDA), as amended, is a federally chartered, private, nonprofit educational institution providing elementary, secondary, undergraduate, and continuing education programs for persons who are deaf.

Now, if you look at the alternative Wikipedia site containing info on "Gallaudet United Now Movement" you'll find no such reference about the "quasi-governmental" blurb but certainly that Wikipedia link on GUNM has earned a warning label:

This article may not be compliant with the content policies of Wikipedia.
To be compliant, it must be written from a neutral point of view and must not include unverifiable or unsuitable material, or original research.

Such a nice and dependable Wikipedia site, huh?

Now, if you look at Reference.com it has the exact same words in the 1st paragraph at the very beginning to that of Wikipedia on Gallaudet University . Well, almost the same except for the "quasi-governmental" blurb that was conveniently put in by somebody to a link containing pretty much biased information on the Wikipedia site.

Read and compare, folks.

Of course, Wikipedia has never been a real good website or source for accurate or even unbiased information, especially if there's politics involved. And this recent protest was certainly full of politics as well as a pile of cow chips enough to get, presumably so, Deaf people to go about changing, adding and erasing certain information on Wikipedia's editable page. Why bother reading it in the first place?

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