Oh so meta...

[asterroc]

CNN reports that Wikinews reports that Nancy Benoit's death at the hands of her husband and WWE wrestler Chris Benoit was announced on Wikipedia prior to the police actually knowing about it. It's making my head spin. It's sad when a "trusted" news source is getting its news from wikis.

Comments

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

Dear CNN,

When wikipedia scoops you, it's not cool. It's EMBARASSING.

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

I don't think embarrassing is a strong enough word for it.

[sammka.livejournal.com]

Except that it's not really news "from" wikis, it's news "about" wikis, for the most part.

I saw earlier today on CNN that the news of Benoit's death was on wikipedia before authorities knew about it. That kind of thing is easy to verify with Wikipedia's history function.

The only information they seem to be getting from Wikinews is the fact that a poster with the same IP address as the original editor made a certain later statement. And it's not really according to an ARTICLE on Wikinews, apparently, it's according to Wikinews' history function. I am quite sure that's where the reporter got it from because that page was directly linked from Wikipedia's news page about Benoit. I think looking at a wiki site to find out who wrote what on that wiki site is perfectly good journalism.

And that statement was that he had posted based on "speculation and rumor." So it's probably a GOOD thing that it was posted on Wikipedia before it was news and not embarrassing at all, because do YOU want CNN writing up stuff based on speculation and rumor?