[WikiEN-l] Getting hammered in a tv interview is not fun

[William Pietri]

Jimmy Wales wrote:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Fanning
>
> This article said that "She is the sister of [[Powderfinger]] frontman 
> and solo artist, [[Bernard Fanning]]."
>
> Not true.
>
> She asked me about this on television.  I danced around it as best I 
> could, but basically it was not fun. :(
>
> Fortunately, this bit of incorrect information was not negative.  But it 
> made it hard for me to make a positive image for us.
>   

I'm all for a push for improving biographies, but were there 
alternatives to dancing?

It seems to me that an interviewer will for years to come be able to 
easily find something in Wikipedia that is obviously wrong. Treating 
that a a problem is accepting a negative premise, which I understand to 
be a PR mistake.[1] When people catch us in errors, aren't we better off 
going with positive responses that begin with, "Yes, exactly..."?

That's what I do when people grumble to me about something on Wikipedia, 
although admittedly I've never tried it with a TV reporter.

William

[1] for example, http://www.transmediagroup.com/crisismgmt.asp