• Home Delivery
• Customer Services
• Contact Us

Print | Email |

Davis aide under fire for trying change information in his boss' and brother's online biographies

 

U.S. Rep. David Davis' press secretary says he tried to change the online Wikipedia biographies of Davis and Tennessee state Rep. Matthew Hill.

"I made a mistake," said Timothy Hill, Davis' press secretary and Matthew Hill's brother.

The piece of information being altered involves old pharmaceutical industry connections highlighted by the Tennessee Democratic Party (TDP).

Information changed in Hill's and Davis' biographies involved a reference to Davis' participation in an August 1999 "lobbying airlift" arranged by King Pharmaceuticals to get King's Altace drug onto Tenn- Care's preferred drug list. The information is sourced to go4truth, a site paid for and authorized by the TDP.

The Wikipedia entries noted that both Matthew Hill and Davis accepted campaign contributions from former King Pharmaceuticals Chairman and CEO John Gregory, who founded the Tennessee Conservative Political Action Committee and supports the anti-abortion group Tennessee Right To Life. Gregory has been a difference-maker in Tennessee politics by giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and causes.

Matthew Hill is a Jonesborough Republican who won a tough re-election battle in 2006 against former Washington County Sheriff Fred Phillips. Davis, a former Tennessee state representative, was elected to his first term as Northeast Tennessee's Republican 1st Congressional District representative in 2006 and faces re-election in 2008.

Wikepedia is a free online encyclopedia project that at times comes under fire from Internet bloggers who question its content about politicians and their records. Wikipedia, created in 2001, is a registered trademark of the nonprofit Florida-based Wikimedia Foundation (WF).

When asked whether Wikipedia gets more heat from liberal or conservative bloggers, WF Chairman Emeritus Jimmy Wales said: "I wouldn't say there's any difference between the two."

Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world, and its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the "edit this page" link.

The attempted changes to Matthew Hill's and Davis' Wikipedia biographies were detailed by a Wikipedia administrator in a July online article for Search Engine Land.

The administrator called the editing of Hill's and Davis' online biographies "blanking vandalism." The administrator traced the changes, which Wikipedia jargon calls a "page diff," to an Internet protocol address of a congressional office computer.

"None of those inappropriate edits remained in Wikipedia's live version very long. ... As an administrator I am continually surprised by how often I see edits that serve little purpose except to place the editor at risk for adverse news coverage," the administrator wrote.

Timothy Hill described himself as "kind of a hard charger" who wanted to make sure "truthful information" exists about Davis, who often touts his record as an open government advocate.

"I have searched hundreds if not thousands of sites and stories weekly. ... I saw on a search engine something about Wikipedia. I had never really been to the site before, and I didn't understand how to use it. I looked through the site and I saw what I thought was inaccurate information. ... I'm looking at this (biography of Davis) and thinking ‘That's junk,'" Timothy Hill said. "I went through and I attempted to replace it with what I thought was accurate information. ... I don't anticipate attempting to edit any Wikipedia again."

Timothy Hill said his actions weren't intended to be malicious.

"It wasn't intended to keep public records from people. It was something I felt was inappropriate information," Timothy Hill said. "I'm still in the learning process as much as anybody else, and I have learned from this experience."

Discuss This Story

Be the first to comment: Sign In or Create Profile .

Enter Username Enter Password

Where is Richard Venable? He should have been the man in congress for the first district. Between the no vote on the canine bill and now this, Davis has caused Jimmy to roll over in his grave. Davis better get with it or I will help put a democrat in power.

James Swafford | 8/14/2007 - 9:56 AM - (Suggest Removal )

Mr davis does what the president want. he is yes sir no sir to the party. He vote how he told to. Davis is like jimmy was . He vote for big guy and rich. I like how mr davis does not think the wages for the working class should not go up . but they voted them self a raise. I think if he was listen to voter we be trying to get out of iraq. But the president want to stay so mr davis will agree with him.Not the voter. If the next president does not get us out there we be there for the next 50yr
They need to put 2 billion of that money in this county. Like hiring 300 more border guards.

| 8/12/2007 - 10:52 PM - (Suggest Removal )

In my opinion, no one should take Wikipedia seriously. It is a source of information, but anything one reads on it should be checked out thoroughly. If you were doing a college paper and listed Wikipedia as source, you'd most likely be laughed at,if not failed, for most colleges do not approve of Wikipedia's use as a legitimate source. Now as for Mr. Hill,my advice would be not to take Wikipedia seriously enough to worry about changing anything on it. If what he was attempting to change is not factual or possibly libelous, he should take proper legal action against those parties involved. To try and change something, despite of what his intentions may or may not have been, gives the appearance of trying to hide something...giving ammunition to his political enemies. Not a smart move.

Dale St. John | 8/12/2007 - 8:05 PM - (Suggest Removal )

While agree with Ms. Smith that Wikipedia can be misleading at times, this specific event deals with facts. Mr. Timothy Hill tries to portray himself as unintelligent within the internet atmosphere. Thats pure and simple baloney, and for him to alter parts of an entry because he thought they were "inacurrate" shows how much he knows about his boss. Those Hill brothers are surely creating a name for themselves in this region. And by "name" I mean "bad image".

Ronald Simmons | 8/12/2007 - 1:29 PM - (Suggest Removal )

Yet another example of Davis and his team's lack of political savvy and computer knowledge. At the very least if you're going to alter something on the net find a "clean" computer to do it on so it can't be traced back to your office. Dick Cheney and Karl Rove do it all the time and could have advised him on how to do it. All he had to do was make a call and I'm sure the aide could have gotten advice on the technique. Also Wikipedia is probably not viewed by many of the people who support Davis anyway so why bother with it? The aide "made a mistake," which means getting caught in political hack speak and now Davis gets more negative publicity over what could be considered a minor spin operation. Till this guy gets out of the "learning process" I'd say keep him away from compters. Maybe he should make the coffee runs and sharpen pencils for a while.

Joe Allison | 8/12/2007 - 12:43 PM - (Suggest Removal )

Home | Login | Local News | Obits | Sports | Business | Opinions | Blogs | Classifieds| Business Profiles

Web Feeds/RSS | Contact Us | Customer Service | Privacy Statement | Common Questions | E-Edition | Subscriptions | Site Map

© 2009 Kingsport Publishing Corporation - Innovation by Times Digital Group