Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the nonprofit operator of Wikipedia alleging a pattern of liberal bias in articles on the collaborative encyclopedia.

ā€œI write to request information about ideological bias on the Wikipedia platform and at the Wikimedia Foundation,ā€ Cruz wrote to Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander in aĀ letter dated October 3. ā€œWikipedia began with a noble concept: crowdsource human knowledge using verifiable sources and make it free to the public. That’s what makes reports of Wikipedia’s systemic bias especially troubling.ā€

Citing research from the conservativeĀ Manhattan Institute, Cruz wrote that ā€œresearchers have found that articles on the site often reflect a left-wing bias.ā€ Cruz alleged that ā€œbias is particularly evident in Wikipedia’sĀ reliable sources/perennial sourcesĀ listā€ because it describes ā€œMSNBC and CNN as ā€˜generally reliable’ sources, while listing Fox News as a ā€˜generally unreliable’ source for politics and science. The left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center gets a top rating, but the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, is a ā€˜blacklisted’ and ā€˜deprecated’ source that Wikipedia’s editors have determined ā€˜promotes disinformation.ā€™ā€

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It certainly has worked on MSM.

    Its been less effective on independent media and journalists. But its also just a rhetorical ploy. The real rightward shift in mass media towards conservative bias has come with mass consolidation of media ownership over the last 40 years.

    Where as we once had a plethora of different regionalized perspectives and local coverage pools, now we’re dealing with national syndication of conservative opinion pieces, police-blotter local news (incentivized by far-right broadcast managers), and wave after wave of native advertising used to turn news media into a more profitable revenue stream.

    I would say the worst thing about modern American local news isn’t even the naked reactionary Op-Eds and crime stories. It is the daily drum-beat piece about the lottery - who is winning, how much the pot is worth, where you can buy tickets, how many people are excited to participate… Fucking horrible. Since I gave up terrestrial TV, these ads stick out like a pus-spewing boil on the face of every single broadcast news feed.