Congresspedia - Sunlight Foundation
Hmmm. This morning, Glenn Reynolds writes:
PUSHING FOR TRANSPARENCY: Check out the new Sunlight Foundation website. Plus the Congresspedia. And here’s a story from the Washington Post. These people are lefties, which has engendered some suspicion (see the WP story), but I think that this stuff transcends partisanship.
I’m not so sure about that. This line from the Washington Post story pretty much says it all:
Some Republicans and others worry that part of the information that the group highlights might be tilted in a way that does more damage to the GOP than Democrats, especially during this election year. “It seems convenient that the latest ‘nonpartisan’ organization has failed to shine a light on the fact that its roots appear to be anything but,” Republican National Committee’s Tracey Schmitt said in an e-mail.
Yesterday I got a Blogads order from Congresspedia, so I checked it out. It’s a wiki, which I generally loathe in the political arena, but that wasn’t an issue. Congresspedia and the Sunlight Foundation are run by the Center for Media and Democracy, which is most definitely a lefty joint, but even that isn’t the issue. This wiki lists all members of Congress, with major donors and basic information that you’d find in stupid Wikipedia, so the first thing I did was look up my Senators–starting with Senator Jeff Sessions. Senator Sessions is a good guy (my parents know him socially) and an outstanding Senator for Alabamians, but you sure as hell wouldn’t know it by looking at that Congresspedia entry, which says he “supports torture” and pretty much calls him a racist. Why? Because he made a comment saying the NAACP and ACLU are “un-American.” Well, guess what. There are a LOT of people, not just in Alabama, who feel that both organizations are filled with ideologues that aren’t pro-American. That isn’t racist, that’s just not left-wing. They couldn’t even just say “Senator Sessions is a strong advocate for the military,” without taking a dig at him and a pro-troops rally in DC. Amusingly, it’s almost identical to the inaccurate crap at Wikipedia–they probably cut-and-pasted without bothering to verify any of it. Bottom line, that entry does not represent who Senator Sessions is or what he stands for at all. And that’s just one example–there are plenty of others that warrant a complete rewrite.
This whole thing stinks. It’s supposed to (or so I thought) be there for the purpose of transparency in politics, but all I see is left-wing spin (Barbara Boxer has a whole extra entry for her legislative record?) Sure, it’s a wiki–you can edit it, but unlike Wikipedia you have to register, but I’m not interested in spending all my time keeping watch over stupid wiki entries. Wikipedia is bad enough–full of factual errors, inflammatory entries, and writer bias from every direction. That’s not an encyclopedia, that’s a soapbox. I call bullshi’ite.
Again, from the WaPo story:
Other people are simply glad to see that extra political information will be available online. “Any increase in disclosure of money in politics is a benefit to the public,” said Kent Cooper, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine. “Many small organizations cannot afford computer programmers and database specialists; we need more groups that can provide those kinds of services to the average voter.”
Yeah, but a new Wiki for Congress? In an election year? Does anyone actually think this is going to have any value whatsoever? I’m all for “sunlight” on government spending, but a wiki like this? Here’s the deal: no matter what side you’re on, wikis about politics are WORTHLESS. Do your research–don’t rely on unknowns to do it for you. This is for transparency? Where’s the transparency in the process?
So, do I take their money and run the Blogad anyway, pointing out errors and bitching about the site throughout the duration of the ad? (I really don’t have time or desire to do that work.)
Tags: Congresspedia, Center for Media and Democracy, Source Watch, Sunlight Foundation, wikipedia, spin, Congress, senators, Senator Jeff Sessions, Alabama
sigmund, carl and alfred says:
Values and beliefs ought not be for sale.
What you say if I posed the same kind of question to you?
Beth says:
OK, you got me. I should have known you (or someone like you) would show up and hit me with the moral conscience cluebat. :wink:
Another Blogad in the (ever-growing) Reject Pile! :mrgreen:
Martin says:
Spam word: snow. Cool!!
That site will degenerate into a totaly unmanageable morass of hyper-partisan name-calling bullshi’ite in about four days.
It will be Kos disguised as an encyclopedia. Expect to see entries quoted widely on See BS News.
I will personally go and edit Nancy Pelosi’s page myself.
Martin says:
Two ‘L’s in totally. Obviously.
Go Cards.
Conor Kenny says:
Beth,
Thanks for your interest in the site. I’m sorry you decided not to accept the blogad, but maybe I can clear up some confusion about what we’re trying to do and what is up on the site already:
We created our initial 539 articles largely out of Wikipedia and SourceWatch content, but that is only intended to be the foundation upon which we hope users will contribute information to with additions and new articles.
So, for Sen. Sessions, yeah, we started out with stuff from Wikipedia, which doesn’t mean it’s representative of the Senator’s entire record. I took a look at his profile and I agree that the section titles are a little opinionated and hyperbolic. More problematic, in my opinion, is the fact that the section on torture is unsourced. Not all the information we ported over into Congresspedia was sourced and this is something we’re going to be working on over the next few weeks—Congresspedia has a policy that all information needs to have an external reference. That’s one way we’re different than Wikipedia that we hope will make us more accurate and fair than Wikipedia (in addition to not allowing opinions, only documented facts). As the Congresspedia Editor (another way we’re more rigorous than Wikipedia), I’m going to do some research and see if I can clarify and source these sections better – I’ll check back in with you so you can take a look at what we’ve done. Our whole goal is to provide a well-researched, factual an non-partisan source of information for the general public, not just for those of certain political affiliations and philosophies.
On the other hand, if you know Session’s record well, why not come on over and make some contributions to fill out his profile and make it more representative of his entire record? It would help other people understand what he’s all about.
In regards to the roots of the Sunlight Foundation (as referenced by the RNC spokeswoman), complete staff profiles are can be found here: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/about/bios and my bio can be found here: http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/bios/Conor_Kenny. We’re about as transparent as they come, but if folks would like to know anything else about the site or us I’d be happy to answer any questions. While some staffers have links to left-of-center organizations, several of us have backgrounds in decidedly non-partisan research organizations (like the Center for Responsive Politics and the Center for Public Integrity).
I hope this helps clear things up and I also hope you will find Congresspedia helpful in your research and blogging – one way we are trying to make this a useful research resource is by (eventually) having everything rigorously sourced so that if you (or See BS news) can simply quickly replicate our research if you don’t trust it. There’s no need to take our word for it.
Best,
Conor Kenny, Congresspedia Editor
Conor AT sourcewatch.org
GAIL DECAIRE RN says:
I am a Registered Nurse and General Motors Retired Salared employee. Have Proff of Conspiracy/cover-up that transcends aLL levels of OUR legal system. It begins with the OUTSOURCING of the GM Medical and Insurance dept. To Washington to meet with Michigan leaders on FEB. 10, 2006. Even met with US dept. of Labor (Patrick HYDE) The government is in collusion with Big business. Have documentation to PROVE ALL I say. Please call me @ 989-790-7623 if YOU will tell the Truth to the American People. WE WANT A CONGRESSIONAL Hearing.
Gail DeCaire RN- The Last GM Nurse (General Motors)
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Wikipedia SUCKS says:
[...] Tags: Wikipedia, Wikipedia sucks, Congresspedia, PR Watch, SourceWatch, Center for Media & Democracy, activism, Bush, Vets for Freedom, Jeff Sessions, Haditha, 9/11, September 11 Wikipedia.com - the most unbelievable web site in the world Did you ever notice that only “liberals” (scare quotes) use Wikipedia as a source when using links in blog posts or comments? Well, there’s a DEFINITE reason for it, and it’s not just because they are clueless and think it’s an authoritative encyclopedia. I’ve spoken of the Wikipedia bias before, in the context of the laughably left-wing “Congresspedia” project: …I’m not interested in spending all my time keeping watch over stupid wiki entries. Wikipedia is bad enough–full of factual errors, inflammatory entries, and writer bias from every direction. That’s not an encyclopedia, that’s a soapbox. I call bullshi’ite. [...]
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy » Blog Archive » SourceWatch, PRWatch, CMD, John Stauber, and “Artificial Intelligence” can take their blogad and ram it up their asses says:
[...] Thank you for proving my point about the bias at Wikipedia, dumbass! Note that they port entries over from Sourcewatch to Wikipedia and refuse to even discuss the bias or accuracy of that information. They’re like 9/11 conspiracy nuts with their “facts”–if something is within the realm of possibility and imagination, all sorts of things can be deemed as “facts.” Their “Sunlight Foundation” needs some sunlight shining on themselves (the whole CMD conglomerate, that is). So I think I’ll be passing on that Blogad for your moonbat attack group. Again. Thanks anyway! (I don’t need the $25 THAT badly, y’know.) Click thumbnails: [...]