Wiki-Bear

Huffington Post Coverage

You maybe have wondered why I don’t rely on Wikipedia as an authoritative source or why I stopped participating in editing it… (but not likely :))

Rush Limbaugh apparently relied on some “over the top” fabrication from Wikipedia, regarding a judge in Florida who is going to tackle the legality of Obamacare.   Wikikpedia apparently said the judge had 3 brown bear heads mounted over the door to his courtroom to scare people coming in. The story had appeared in the paper on June 31st. *wink wink*

With Rush, it can be hard to know when he knows something is bogus and is playing along, or whether he really did fall for it.  I didn’t hear the show, so I don’t know.  His tone of voice is usually the major clue.

Given he has been on the receiving end of of numerous edit wars to his profile on Wikipedia, I tend to doubt he uses Wikipedia as a source.  If he said that “Wikipedia says that…”, it was a slam on Wikipedia, not that he was believing it….   Other than the NY Times, this story doesn’t seem to have much traction.

Update:  Here is the transcript

Although he apparently was laughing, he neither says anything that says it is fake or does he properly attribute it to Wikipedia.  In another report on Rep Grayson (FL-D) in 2009, he also used Wikipedia as a source, although that time he did give attribution:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_100109/content/01125107.guest.html

The most alarming thing said in the NY Times story is not about Limbaugh, but the wife of the judge:

His wife, Ellen, was less amused. “It offended me,” she said, “because I don’t think you should be able to broadcast something nationally if you can’t verify it.”

That’s a pretty high standard. The judge’s main hobby is not hunting bears, but flowers – Camellias to be specific. Don’t get your hope up real high that he is going to overturn Obamacare.