[WikiEN-l] Conflict of Interest and lobbyists for foreign governments

[K P]

On 7/29/07, Steven Walling <steven.walling at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well said Bryan.
>
> KP, just because you have things to bitch about in Pashtun articles doesn't
> mean that governments encouraging the subversion of Wikipedia'a neutrality
> with paid sponsorship is acceptable. To use the AFD example:
> WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS is not an excuse for this to go on.
>
> On 7/29/07, K P <kpbotany at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 7/29/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > I say indef block any IP's originating from the institution in
> > question. A
> > > > stated goal of trying to influence Wikipedia in a POV way would get
> > any
> > > > individual anon blocked, so why not a pseudo-governmental
> > organization?
> > >
> > > Technically, their stated goal is to present Israel fairly and
> > > accurately (ie. NPOV). Their blatant COI means they are unlikely to do
> > > that very well, but they aren't openly intending to introduce a POV.
> >
> > Actually there are all sorts of nationalistic interests alive and
> > functioning quite well on Wikipedia--how arrogant of the Israels to
> > want to join the crowd?
> >
> > Most every Pashtun article on Wikipedia is written from a
> > Persian-nationalistic perspective, and attempts to change that run one
> > afoul of those largely responsible for supporting this
> > silliness--although these editors are falling by the wayside one by
> > one, because, generally nationalists have one-tracked minds.  In the
> > meantime, there are some very poor, rather silly, and some very unique
> > (okay, POV) articles on the history of Afghanistan and Pashtuns, that
> > have very little to do with anything but the Persian declaration that
> > that section of the world is theirs, always has been, and always will
> > be.  The Brits would have liked that to have been true about 100 years
> > ago, admitedly.  Ironically much of the information is copied en masse
> > from the bery Brittish biased Encyclopedia Iranica, which, when
> > challenged, is met with the rallying cry of nationalism, "scholarly
> > source, scholarly source."
> >
> > So, how dare the Israels do on Wikipedia what every one else is doing,
> > or how dare they announce that they are doing it when everyone else is
> > so cleverly hiding it?
> >
> > KP
> >
I don't have things to bitch about in Pashtun articles, because there
are no real Pashtun articles on Wikipedia.

It's worse than a double standard, that which is known is beaten down,
but the undeclared is unworthy of being investigated, or even noticed.
 I'd rather have the enemy I know than the one every one is too scared
to identify.

So Israel acknowledges what every one else is doing, and we crack down
on the Israli's declaration, but leave the rest to go on.

KP