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Mission Launched to Support Palin's Fractured Revere History
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by Karen Hatter | June 7, 2011 at 04:21 am
287 views | 4 Recommendations | 17 comments
Videos
According to Palin, Revere Warned British- Boston, MA Local News
sourced by Karen Hatter
Photos
Sarah Palin, Southern Republican Leadership Convention 2012
uploaded by Sudha Krishna
It seems while most of the U.S. and the world may have been preoccupied with New York Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner's admission that he lied regarding posting risque tweets on Twitter, an online rescue mission to aid Sarah Palin and support her misrepresentation of history was being implemented.
Charles Johnson, at Little Green Footballs, has captured the activity here.
Sarah Palin, who refused to retract or amend her erroneous take on the history of Paul Revere's ride, appeared on the FOX Network with Chris Wallace, restating her previous incorrect version of Paul Revere's ride.
On Sunday, Palin appeared on Fox News to address the issue of Revere warning the "British" and ringing bells. She called it a "gotcha question" and affirmed, "I know my American history."
As a consequence of Ms. Palin's version of history, the people powered site Wikipedia was beset by posters attempting to 'adjust' the entry for Paul Revere to fit the former Republican Alaska governor's version of the history.
This weekend, Tuned In Jr., who is studying Boston and the American Revolution in school, mentioned that he was getting a "locked" error message while trying to load a Wikipedia page on Paul Revere. I know! As a father and a journalist, I should know better than to let my son use Wikipedia as a primary source.Fortunately, the news cycle intervened to give us a perfect object lesson, by providing a possible reason Revere's page may have been in limbo: over the weekend, there was a war between Wikipedia editors and supporters of Sarah Palin who were trying to "fix" the entry to make it conform with Palin's flubbed description of Revere's ride.
Palin fumbled her elementary-school history on camera while visiting the Old North Church in Boston (see video above), rendering it as a ride in which Revere "warned the British" by "ringing those bells" and "send[ing] those warning shots and bells."
Dozens of changes were made to the Revere page on the Internet site Sunday and Monday after Palin claimed Revere's famous ride was intended to warn both his fellow colonists and British soldiers. The page features a padlock, which Wikimedia Foundation spokesman Jay Walsh said can provide a cooling-off period when there are numerous attempts to edit a site.
Attempts to rewrite history to reflect Sarah Palin's version were challenged, with many entries eventually removed for offering a version of history not supported by any known history of Paul Revere.
Done. Thank you, I removed the content not backed by a reliable source. --CutOffTies (talk) 14:52, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
Posters seeking to revise the Paul Revere Wikipedia entry to reflect Palin's comments offered videos of Sarah Palin's statements as corroborative material for the revisions.
Here is a recounting of events surrounding Paul Revere's ride in 1775, provided by Professor Robert Allison, professor in the history department at Suffolk University. The interviewer is Mellisa Block of All Things Considered :
BLOCK: And let's review Paul Revere's midnight ride, April 18, 1775. He's going to Lexington, Massachusetts. And according to Sarah Palin, he's riding his horse through town sending warning shots and ringing those bells. True?Prof. ALLISON: Well, he's not firing warning shots. He is telling people so that they can ring bells to alert others. What he's doing is going from house to house, knocking on doors of members of the Committees of Safety saying the regulars are out. That is, he knew that General Gage was sending troops out to Lexington and Concord, really Concord, to seize the weapons being stockpiled there, but also perhaps to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams, leaders of the Continental Congress, who were staying in the town of Lexington.
Remember, Gage was planning - this is a secret operation, that's why he's moving at night. He gets over to Cambridge, the troops start marching from Cambridge, and church bells are ringing throughout the countryside.
BLOCK: So Paul Revere was ringing those bells? He was a silversmith, right?
Prof. ALLISON: Well, he was - he also was a bell ringer. That is, he rang the bells at Old North Church as a boy. But he personally is not getting off his horse and going to ring bells. He's telling other people - and this is their system before Facebook, before Twitter, before NPR, this was the way you get a message out is by having people ring church bells and everyone knows there is an emergency.
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Karen Hatter
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Sudha Krishna
Vancouver, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (17)
at 05:15 on June 7th, 2011
Sarah Palin's explanation of her stupidity is like cheating on a test, or changing the answer after turning in the paper. What kind of an example is this?
Modern Republicanism is as scandalous as modern Democaticism. Both have distinguished members.
at 06:07 on June 7th, 2011
There has been no indication that this action was sanctioned by Sarah Palin or any of her official staff.
However, given the accounts of her former aide, i.e. having members of her staff send letters of support she had written to media outlets, it may be worth exploring if this was another of those type campaigns.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
What makes this incident highly unique, Jim, may be the fact that Palin supporters froze up the Wikipedia Paul Revere entry, preventing access to the Paul Revere entry, as they fought with site managers as they attempted to force Sarah Palin's allusion to the history of Paul Revere's ride, a history of which only SHE was aware, be left on site when the altered history was added at the site's posting by her supporters.
at 05:31 on June 7th, 2011
See, kids, this is why Wikipedia is not a valid research tool in class assignments. Useful for looking up Prince's discography, though.
at 05:38 on June 7th, 2011
Yeah, Jordan, that's a fight I've been having for years with my younguns!
at 06:37 on June 7th, 2011
I know what you both are saying, however to prove its worth, I just wrote a book with almost all Wiki references. As you know Karen, I did it on purpose to show people they use it for some useful purposes with their mind engaged in the process.
You can't watch the news and believe all that hear and see on television either.
at 07:47 on June 7th, 2011
Jim, as far as Wikipedia goes, I definitely feel one should not use information at the site as a primary source of information.
As I have searched the site, and assuming as true the assertion by site managers that they monitor and give their best effort to keep the site as bias neutral as possible, there are any number of entries I have found to be more than leaning in content in one direction or another.
This pertained to things meant to include information in a manner that, on the surface seemed innocuous, like in this instance.
In an effort to keep this altered history in place, Palin's supporters posted her incorrect history, citing it as if the fractured account was an uncorroborated account while not noting that the fractured history lesson had been offered by Palin and she was the SOURCE of the uncorroborated account.
The previously posted altered history from Wikipedia subsequently removed:
Source: en.wikipedia.org
That distinction and difference is highly significant and important if one is citing the site as a reference source for providing historical context.
With the possible exception of FOX Network viewers, I would submit most people do not believe everything they hear and see on television.
at 10:33 on June 7th, 2011
No quality control.
at 11:38 on June 7th, 2011
Well, Jim, at least they caught THIS one or else, to a casual reader(s) at the site, had that information remained, the erroneous information may have been mistaken to reflect and record some possible eyewitness account from colonial times.
Honestly, this incident reminds me of that segment that used to be featured on that old 1960s cartoon program called The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The segment was called Fractured Fairy Tales.
There was always a retelling of some fairy tale, usually with the same characters known to most from the fairy tale with the facts of the fairy tale just .... a .... little skewered.
In the case of Palin's attempt to rewrite the tale of Paul Revere, well, he did ride, there were bells ringing, and there were shots and .... !
at 07:18 on June 7th, 2011
Less than qualified to be President of the United States.
And to think John McCain had put her within a stepping stone of being in the White House.
at 07:23 on June 7th, 2011
1, that was scary, wasn't it?
at 07:20 on June 7th, 2011
Finally something we can agree on Karen! Wiki does indeed suck!
People are always changing it, it is becoming so lefty PC it is not even funny.
at 07:28 on June 7th, 2011
Yay for that, I guess, FT!
I've found in some cases it is quite Right Wing leaning in content.
at 09:50 on June 7th, 2011
Remember Stephen Colbert's "Wikiality" stunt? Having enough people willing to perpetuate ones stupidity does not make it true. When Colbert did it, it was amusing, and proved a point, though arguably that point may have been missed by many of his fans who were taking part in the antics. This, however, underlines nothing but the fact that Sarah Palin has a great big head full of nickels, and an army of people who are willing to support her in the face of irrefutable evidence of her abject stupidity…. One thing I will say for her though, she is entertaining…
at 10:27 on June 7th, 2011
Piobar, I was unaware of Stephen Colbert's stunt and given the comedic vein OF the stunt, it sounds as if the results could have been hysterical.
However, in THIS instance, this display by those Palin supporters seeking to surreptiously rewrite the Revere history is eerily troublesome, given the manner in which it was attempted.
I've already read online someone's attempt to twist actual facts, found in correspondence written by Paul Revere, that he did in fact do as Sarah Palin indicated.
Offered as proof is the fact that during one leg of his journey, Revere was stopped and questioned by the British Redcoats.
Paul Revere's less than fortunate brief detention and any resultant information he may or may not have offered to the British does NOT transform Palin's account into a FACTUAL accounting of the historic events.
Although, I am sure that her supporters will persevere and soldier on with their assumed and let's hope, self appointed mission,
at 11:55 on June 7th, 2011
Karen, I agree with you whole-heartedly. We have a long history here in Canada of people re-writing history to suit their political agendas, and it is a disgrace. I have spoken to history professors who will no longer teach in Quebec, for example, because they were repremanded for teaching the recognised version of history, rather than that espoused by separatist politicians. It is nothing new, but without any evidence to support a claim, it is unjustified. Sometimes, yes, accepted history is incorrect. But this is not one of those cases. To rewrite history to save face, rather than admit an error, is ridiculous. I have my doubts about how "self appointed" this mission is. To me it has a simular smell to Henry the Second's "will no one rid me of this turbulent priest" remark, and its fallout. Even if she did not ask directly, she may have made an implicit request for some support. In any case, she has shown she has all the intelligence of a stuffed chimp.
at 12:09 on June 7th, 2011
Turn back the clock and we'll give you Detroit.
at 13:49 on June 7th, 2011
Piobar, as I consider the anecdotal evidence that has been offered regarding Sarah Palin's near manic obsession with crafting and protecting her image, let's just say I'd be looking for evidence she did NOT orchestrate or, as you stated, make a " .... request for some support ...." on this Wikipedia incident.