On 8/24/07, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 24/08/07, Robert Brockway robert@timetraveller.org wrote:
Morning. The Australian foreign minister, Mr Alexander Downer, has been quoted as stating that Wikipedia is "anti-government". He also seems to be quite misinformed about how Wikipedia works. Perhaps the Foundation should contact Mr Downer's office to correct these misunderstandings. Reference: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22300575-2,00.html
Transcript:
http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/transcripts/2007/070824_media_conference.h...
It's fairly clear he was floundering and didn't have a clue. (Springing stuff on Alexander Downer and watching him flounder brings to mind proverbs about fish, barrels and shooting.) It's not quite the ringing condemnation of the headline.
It looks like a not very web savvy person answering the questions fairly legitimately if slightly overplaying some of what goes on behind the scenes.
A few errors but nothing serious. Wikipedians tent to react badly to almost any authority which could well qualify as "a bit anti-government".