The Rundown Living in a Wikipedia world

By Dave Perozek

Posted: August 16, 2009 at 4:14 a.m.

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While writing an editorial about the 40th anniversary of Woodstock last week, I spent a good 15 minutes reading about it on Wikipedia.

By now most people know all about Wikipedia. It's a free online encyclopedia that currently includes about 13 million articles, nearly 3 million of which are in English. You can find out about everything from the latest stab at health-care reform to what happened at the 1998 NBA All-Star Game (the East won, 135-114). In other words, if you can imagine a subject, there's probably an article on it.

Now we all know that Wikipedia has had credibility problems because of its open editing model, so you can't believe everything you read. For the most part, though, it's an excellent resource, if only to gain an elementary understanding of aparticular subject.

Woodstock was a familiar subject to me; still, when I visited the Wikipedia article on it, I found out how little I had known.

I admit: I love Wikipedia.

On a bookshelf behind my desk at work is a World Book Encyclopedia set from the 1990s. Curious, I picked out the book labeled "W-XY-Z" and flipped through it to see what it had to say about Woodstock. Given that Woodstock was one ofthe most significant cultural events of the 20th century, I thought it would have something.

Now, these encyclopedias have some great information, but if you want to learn about Woodstock, you're out of luck. It should have been there between entries for "Woodson, Carter Goodwin" and "Woodsworth, James Shaver." It was not.

In the "H" book, I did find an entry about hippies, however.

Still, Wikipedia tells you way more about hippies than World Book.

OK, maybe Wikipedia's information isn't as exhaustively researched as World Book's, but compared to other stuff you find on the Internet, Wikipedia seems pretty reliable.

◊◊ ◊

Speaking of reliable, I recommend another Web site, www.Fact-Check.org.

If your head is spinning from everything you've heard about health care and the proposal be-weighed in Congress, FactCheck.org might help. Run by the An

nenberg Public Policy

Center of the Univer

sity of Pennsylvania, the Web site describes itself as a "nonpartisan nonprofit 'consumer

advocate' for voters

that aims to reduce the level of deceptionand confusion in U.S. politics."

I can think of at least one recent letter writer who might have benefited from perusing FactCheck.

He wrote that "euthanasia is being promoted as our solution for theelderly in the new health-care reform." In the writer's defense, it's a charge that has been repeated often by some hysterical critics out there, including Sarah "Death Panel" Palin. But a lengthy entry on FactCheck makes clear that the claim that the House health-care bill advocates suicide is nonsense.

◊◊ ◊

Speaking of letters to the editor, you might have caught the one in Thursday's newspaper that accused yours truly of being a "religion fanatic." Believe me, dear reader, that was a first for me.

The accusation was brought on by the fact that I had rejected one of the writer's earlier letters because it struck me as nothing more than an attempt to pick a fight with Christians. I failed to see the point of that.

I admit that my wife and I start dinner most nights by saying grace, and I was raised a good little Catholic. Lately, however, I haven't been very good about getting to church on Sundays. And by "lately," I mean the past four years.

So much for my fanaticism.

◊ ◊ ◊

Another random thought:

Major League Baseball treated us to yet another bench-clearing brawl last week. After Detroit pitcher Rick Porcello plunked Boston's Kevin Youkilis with a pitch, Youkilis charged Porcello and hurled his batting helmet at him before tackling the pitcher, much like a linebacker taking down a quarterback in the backfield.

Major League Baseball suspended both guys for five games. Which got me to thinking: What if you or I started a fight in our workplace? Would we merely be suspended for a week, or would we be ordered to clean out our desks? I'm guessing the latter.

Chalk it up as just another difference between our world and the athlete's world. Of course, in what other line of work is a major success celebrated with a champagne shower?

◊◊ ◊

Dave Perozek is opinion page editor of The Benton County Daily Record. His column appears on Sundays. Reach him at (479) 271-3754 or davep@nwanews.com.

Opinion, Pages 9 on 08/16/2009

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