We had the Today Show on this morning (as we almost always do – my wife\’s preference) and found out that show host Savannah Guthrie had gotten married over the weekend – and is 4 months pregnant (no indication of any shotgun at the ceremony…but I wasn\’t there so I don\’t know for sure).
My wife asked me to find out who she married. So I went to Wikipedia, because this is the kind of stuff I expect it to get right.
The Wikipedia entry told me that she married Michael Feldman – with a link for him.
I clicked on the link and found out that Michael Feldman was a 65 year old guy very, very offbeat guy from Wisconsin, with a career in radio and writing…and with a wife and two children: no indication of a divorce.
Whoops.
So I did some more checking, of a non-Wikipedia variety.
And I found out that Wikipedia had the wrong Michael Feldman. The one she married appears to be in his early 40\’s (he graduated from Tufts University in 1990), and has a political consultant business – The Glover Park Group.
NBC doesn\’t have to worry, though: Feldman is a lifelong Democrat who has toiled for Bill Clinton and Al Gore among others.
I assume this mistake will be corrected very quickly (maybe it already has been).
But remember that things like this happen all the time on Wikipedia – sometimes unintentionally and sometimes, I suspect, with full intent.
Thus, to mangle the words of Ronald Reagan: “don\’t trust. Verify.”
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UPDATE: It is 8:32AM (Eastern) and the link for Michael Feldman has already been removed.
Now – how much other incorrect information on Wikipedia is not quickly removed?
That\’s something to think about every time you use it as a source.
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FURTHER UPDATE: It is now 12:50PM. At some point during the morning (I wasn\’t checking) Savannah Guthrie\’s Wikipedia page was corrected and now links to the right (actually, left if we\’re speaking politically) Michael Feldman.link.
I hope this puts the other Michael Feldman\’s wife and children\’s minds to rest.
