Readers are surely familiar with
Wikipedia, the encyclopedia which anyone can edit. I am a big fan of Wikipedia because it is largely immune to that force which is dearly hated by us Kossacks living in the Time of Bush: bias. Since anyone can add to it, it is nearly impossible for relevant facts about powerful individuals to be omitted or downplayed as they are in the corporate media. For instance, before HorsesAss got in on the game, nobody knew that Michael Brown was a horse lawyer -- not because the facts weren't out there, just because nobody had put the facts together yet.
Wikipedia does suffer from one major bias: inclusion bias. And that's where you, the DailyKos netroots, can help out. I'm working on a project to shine a light on the cockroach-like cronies who Bush is appointing to minor but consequential offices, in hopes of sending them scattering. To find out how to join in, check below the fold...
Why write an article on a Bush appointee?
On the day that Hurricane Katrina hit shore, FEMA director
Michael Brown did not yet have a Wikipedia entry. I created one with barely any more information than was available in his White House bio, and it quickly blossomed into what amounted to a devastating critique of Brown, while still meeting Wikipedia's standards of
verifiability and
neutral point of view.
This Wikipedia bio is now the #7 Google hit for "michael brown". And don't think this doesn't make a difference -- reporters and opinion leaders use Google too, and they read Wikipedia too.
There are all kinds of other important Bush appointees who don't have Wikipedia articles -- the main sources of information on these folks on the Internet is scattered news articles and blog posts, and of course their inevitable White House-written bios. Consolidating this information on Wikipedia helps because it is an inherently more trustworthy source than partisan blogs, and certainly one that is taken more seriously by the people out there who we are trying to inform.
Who do I write the article on?
Any Bush appointee of any significance who doesn't have one! What I've been doing is skimming the DailyKos diaries and other blogs, and sources like the TNR article on the top Bush cronies, to find good targets. Here are a few of my favorites:
How do I write the article?
First off, look at those examples I linked above, as well as some other Wikipedia biography articles -- they tend to be excellent.
If you've never edited Wikipedia before, you should look at their excellent documentation, as well as their manual of style for biographical articles.
It is also valuable to cite your sources, especially for anything like criticism. There isn't any one standard for citation on Wikipedia, but including a URL is usually a good idea.
Please don't include your own point of view in the article, as well. This project is about shining a light on these people, not spinning them. In particular, it is important when writing a good article to include 'positive' information about the subjects. The best way to make somebody look bad on Wikipedia is to avoid negative language, both because this sort of language is usually removed quickly by anti-POV editors, and because it inherently lacks credibility. If you need more pointers on how to do this, look at the Michael Brown page, which has stood up to a lot of scrutiny and which also contains all of the awful things we have heard about him, written in an appropriate way.
Finally, the most important thing in writing on Wikipedia is to always be bold: don't be afraid to edit! Other people will not be afraid to fix any mistakes you make.