Thursday, September 14, 2006

Bad editing, part II

Wikipedia's taken some well-deserved beatings, but a local error last night was particularly pathetic.

The online encyclopedia offers an entry on the 2006 Massachusetts races for governor and lieutenant governor. It notes a little-known contender, one John Hawkins, a Socialist write-in candidate who happens to be a black meat packer.

Until last night, Wikipedia had linked the candidate John Hawkins to its sole entry on a man named John Hawkins.

Now, let's compare.
John Hawkins - Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor: a meat cutting worker, Black rights activist, and "promoter of the march on Washington demanding no U.S. intervention in the internal politics of Cuba and Venezuela".[13]
So far so good.

The linked?

Sir John Hawkins (also spelled as John Hawkyns) (Plymouth 1532 – November 12, 1595) was an English shipbuilder, merchant, navigator, and slave trader. ... John Hawkins was probably the first major English slave trader, although some point to John Lok in 1553.
Talk about sharing a name but nothing else in common!

1 Comments:

Blogger karla said...

That's unbelievable! Too funny.

September 26, 2006 11:15 PM  

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