Intellectual Property Law

Barack Obama's Wikipedia entry completely omits the president's "links" to former 60s radical William Ayers, and contains only a fleeting reference to his controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Fox News reports.

The brewing scandal was first uncovered by WorldNetDaily reporter Aaron Klein, who noticed that edits adding references to Ayers and Wright, among other things, were quickly being undone by Wikipedia volunteers. 

Klein found it particularly alarming that a Wikipedia user called "Jerusalem21" was recently hit with a three-day wiki-suspension after twice posting the neutral and encyclopedic fact that there are "some doubts about whether Obama was born in the U.S. "

That was Sunday. Fox picked up Klein's explosive scoop today, noting in the first paragraph that -- in contrast to Obama's entry -- the  Wikipedia "pages for Ayers and Wright are heavily peppered with references to the president."

That's meant as evidence that Obama's real and supposed links to the men are newsworthy enough to include in his bio. Fame relationships aren't symmetric, though. If Obama had cut me off in traffic in 1997 the incident would occupy half my Wikipedia entry, while I wouldn't get a footnote in his.

Of more interest is the identity of the mysterious Jerusalem21, whose courageous disregard of Wikipedia's ban on fringe material provided WND's Aaron Klein with his smoking gun in the first place, spawning what will soon be a national wiki-scandal.

Curiously, it turns out that Jerusalem21, whoever he or she might be, has only worked on one other Wikipedia entry since the account was created, notes ConWebWatch. That's Aaron Klein's entry, which Jerusalem21 created in 2006, and has edited 37 times.

Klein, who serves as WND's Jerusalem bureau chief, did not immediate respond to an e-mail Monday.

Creative Commons photo courtesy John D. Resner

See Also:

• 'Molotov' Mitchell Strikes Again: Obama's Not an American!
• Wikipedia Blocks British Editors Amid Censorship Flap
• Vote On the Most Shameful Wikipedia Spin Jobs