Republicans' Wikipedia pages locked after Stephen Colbert urges multiple edits

American TV host and comedian Stephen Colbert urged viewers to update the Wikipedia pages of possible Republican vice-president candidates as frequently as possible.The online encyclopedia instead locked them down. (Charles Sykes/Associated Press file photo)

American comedian Stephen Colbert is taking some heat for mucking up one of the few reliable indicators of who Mitt Romney's running mate will be: Wikipedia edit counts.

Wikipedia has locked down editing privileges for several possible GOP vice-president candidates after Colbert urged his viewers to make as many edits as possible "to your favourite VP contender" after reports that the number of edits may be an indicator of who the actual running mate could be.

Colbert then mock-typed on a laptop computer to edit Republican Governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty's Wikipedia page with a number of nonsense edits "to pump up his edit count." Pawlenty has appeared on Colbert's show in the past.

"'T-Paw was born in St. Paul Minnesota,'" read Colbert. "Let's edit that to, 'the Minnesota town of St. Paul is where born Tim Pawlenty was.'"

Since Colbert's segment ran on Tuesday, Wikipedia has restricted editing on several GOP members' pages. The list of semi-protected pages includes those of Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Romney's page is also protected.

Currently only confirmed registered users on Wikipedia - who have made at least 10 edits in the past and been active for at least four days - can edit semi-restricted pages.

The Toronto Star reports that Pawlenty's page was also put under full lock-down for 24 hours after Colbert's show, blocking anyone who isn't a site administrator from making changes.

"Colbert's instructions to his viewers to vandalize Pawlenty's page was the sole cause of my protection of the page in this particular case," an admin told the Star. "I later fully protected the page when it was clear that auto-confirmed editors had begun to vandalize the page as well."

Romney, the Republican candidate who will run for the presidency against Barack Obama, has not yet chosen who will run with him as vice president.

A 2008 article in the Washington Post pointed out that Sarah Palin's Wikpedia entry was changed 68 times the day before she was chosen as Republican candidate John McCain's running mate. Similarly, Joe Biden's page was edited 40 times the day before he was announced as Obama's running mate.

Should Wikipedia keep the pages of possible Republican running mates protected after Colbert's callout for edits? How much value do you put on a public figure's Wikipedia page?


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