[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia is a public toilet - says Jimbo?

[Ian A Holton]

On Wed, 2008-01-09 at 00:23 +0000, doc wrote:
> Jimbo very bravely granted an interview to the BBC's Hardtalk program. 
> It's a twenty minute televised grilling by a well-briefed journalist 
> with a tendency to go for the jugular.
> 
> 
> You can watch it here:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/progs/07/hardtalk/wales_31dec.ram
> 
> The interviewer dragged up a negative comparison previously made  by 
> Britanica between wikipedia and a  public toilet. Jimbo, later in the 
> interview, chose to return to the analogy and extend it a bit to compare 
> wikipedia to a clear public toilet:
> 
> I transcribe, with the usual disclaimers as to accuracy
> 
> Jimbo: "It is very similar to, well as odd as the analogy might be, this 
> idea of a public restroom, it really is that you have no idea who just 
> cleaned the toilet [something inaudible about the "fancy hotel" for the 
> interview?] but, you know what, I'm sure it's clean, right, because the 
> hotel has a good reputation I don't need the name of the person who did 
> it, right, I know there's processes in place and it seems perfectly fine"
> ....[interviewer is astonished at the bold comparison].....
> 
> Jimbo "It's a good clean public toilet"
> 
> Not sure how wise the self-depreciating humour is. It didn't exactly 
> work out for [[Gerald Ratner]]....?
> 
> 
> Doc
> 

Thanks Doc for the link and transcription, anybody know if it's possible
to watch it under Linux?

Ian [[User:Poeloq]]