In an episode of The Office, the tactless boss, Michael Scott, looks to Wikipedia to learn the art of negotiation. He seems to think that he’s getting reliable information: “Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.” Well, yeah, anyone can add to this site. And in some cases, your tax dollars are paying people to do so.
A report released by The Sacramento Bee (October 17, 2007) revealed that “Sacramento government workers are doing their part to shape how we all see the world – inflating reputations, dabbling in pornography and whiling away work hours.” Shouldn’t we be proud that our state workers are (re)writing history?
At the California Department of Justice, “[C]omputers were used regularly to alter Wikipedia entries about submarines, battleships, and vintage airplanes roughly 1,100 times…”–472 of these entries were about airplanes. According to the Bee, “[I]f the anonymous aviation buff spent 10 minutes on average per edit, that’s more than four 40-hour weeks over three years.” Seems like the only thing taxpayers got from this Justice employee was unjust use of their tax dollars.
An employee at the Dept. of Health Services “edited encyclopedia entries about pornography stars in late 2005…” and “offered profane accounts of their sexual skills.” There was a partner in crime in the same department who “vandalized the encyclopedia entry of lesbian tennis legend Billie Jean King, inserting a homophobic joke, and made up a racist demeaning quote for [one of the porn stars].”
On the less perverted and more clandestine end of the Wikipedia antics, “[a]mong the thousands of entries altered … were: lists of Chinese dissidents, lists of the modules in the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, and lists of record albums with hidden tracks.” Just imagine, if we actually encouraged state and local workers to create or add to Wikipedia entries, the greatest mysteries of the world could gradually be disclosed (and all state institutions would be in shambles).
This is definitely not a case of “haste makes waste” since it appears these employees took their time altering a wide array of subjects. These Wikipedia fiascos are disappointing for all of us who rely on the different departments of the state government to carefully spend our tax dollars while holding their employees to a higher standard. We can’t allow our state workers to become the definition of waste on the backs of taxpayers.
For past issue of Waste Watch click here.