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