Check and evaluate the facts

(John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center, helped Scholars take a fresh look at the First Amendment in a Friday session. Photo by Jeremiah Armenta.)

Wikipedia taught me everything I know about photonics, short-selling stock and the evolution of the Megalodon, my favorite prehistoric monster shark. I visit daily, and it’s been invaluable when I’ve needed to quickly brief myself on a subject. Heck, I even donated $20 of my hard-earned milk money to its latest fundraiser. At the same time, I silently scream whenever I’m fact-checking an article and the writer informs me that he sourced his facts from Wikipedia. It’s not a source! It’s not authoritative. It’s constantly in flux. Today at lunch, I struggled to place the gentleman seated across the table. John Seigenthaler, where have I heard that name? Seigenthaler, a respected journalist, had been the subject of an inaccurate Wikipedia entry. The work of a Wikipedia user, the information was taken by the overly gullible as fact before the inaccurate information was discovered and removed. Wikipedia may be fun. It may be useful, but it is only a launch pad. Any fact, figure or photo must be carefully source and evaluated.

-- Giselle Velazquez, San Francisco State University, Ventura County (Calif.) Star