Man Sorry For Faked Wikipedia Post

By Ed Oswald | Published December 12, 2005, 10:35 AM

The man responsible for writing a Wikipedia entry that linked John Seigenthaler, Sr. to the assassination of John F. Kennedy has come forward and apologized to the former presidential aide. Brian Chase, 38, has resigned from his job as operations manager at a Nashville delivery company over the flap and publicly apologized to Seigenthaler in the Sunday edition of the Tennessean newspaper.

Chase says he didn't know that Wikipedia was considered a serious research tool, and was playing a practical joke on a co-worker. "I knew from the news that Mr. Seigenthaler was looking for who did it, and I did it, so I needed to let him know in particular that it wasn't anyone out to get him, that it was done as a joke that went horribly, horribly wrong," Chase told the paper Sunday. Seigenthaler said he doesn't plan to press charges.

Comments

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Idiots!!! Don't you get it ? It is all just a PR-plot to get the word WikiPedia out AND to let the foundation be able to make WikiPedia more restricted without looking like the bad guys.

WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THIS ?
YOU BLIND SHEEPS!

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I would think that telling everyone that you can edit the entries to say whatever you want would take away from their credibility as a reliable source, and would, in fact, hurt their PR. My opinion.

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Why would he resign from his job? Changing a post as a joke on a website went so far as to make him resign from his job? Am I the only one who thinks that's strange?

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He didn't know it was considered a serious research tool? For his joke to work it would HAVE to be put into something that's considered serious. He is an idiot.

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He's definitely an idiot. Wikipedia is NOT a serious research tool? Even so, that doesn't mean he can post something publicly just to make jokes, especially when knowing the very purpose of that site he's placing his joke on.

He's a grown-up adults and he should be taking responsibility to the public (at least the community of Wikipedia) of what he has done.

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Wikipedia is not a serious research tool. Did you really think it is? Casual reading, yes. Research source, no way, unless Wikimedia Foundation are willing to stand by the contents of Wikipedia.

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i think youve watch one too many law & order reruns Paradise ... or maybe you think you really are a lawyer. "knowingly created a conspiracy theory and slandered someone" ... good lord that dastardly evil-doer!

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Wouldn't Seigenthaler have been about 10 when the assasination occurred?

EDIT - okay, my mistake. I did not realize there was a JR that was on TV now and SR was around back in the day. Nice.

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I am laughing my @$$ off at this.

What morons (Wikipedia) would let you edit pages without logging in first?

The way Wiki is handled is freaking retarded anyway.

They got what was coming to them. I would like to think that people can be trusted, but come on. I am a realist. If it's able to be edited anonymously it will be messed with greatly.

LOL :D

Fools.

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why did they make a big deal outta this anyway, people seriously over-react.

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yeah slander and false accusations are totally cool. i know if somebody accused me of being part of an assassination plot i'd be totally cool with it. i'd be all like "yeah i killed that ***tch and his hooker Marilyn." yeah that's what i'd do.

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Jerks :)

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I can remember numerous times having my fun at deleting pages and adding stupid crap to a great deal of articles. Who cares.

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probably the people whose work you were ruining?

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Seriously, You had fun? Dorks like you are what make the Internet such crap anymore...

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Why apologize? I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of people that have done the same thing. I myself once changed an article to what I "thought" was right, only later did I discover that indeed I was wrong. The article remains to this day unchanged from my edit. No apologies from me, I'm well aware the fallacies in any "snapshot in time" of historical fact.

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Why apologize? Because what he did (besides being ignorant, mean-spirited, and un-funny) was defamation of character. He was probably afraid of getting sued.

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you're comparing two different situations. you thought you were "right" (and probably weren't accusing someone of playing a part in a murder); he knowingly created a conspiracy theory and slandered someone.

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Oh who cares 99% of all online material is b/s anyways

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I'd say about 95% of the information in your brain is false.

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LOL

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