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by smrtinsert 1415 days ago
Why would it be alarming. Wikipedia is a fine entry into any topic. Seeing PragerU influencing the court would be alarming.
2 comments

> Wikipedia is a fine entry into any topic

It isn't, that's the point of the study - not all court decisions are on wikipedia and those that are, are getting cited more. Judges, Lawyers, Clerks have access to the original decisions and court transcripts in electronic form going back decades and longer. If they're relying on whats on wikipedia - they're either doing poor research or are too lazy to write their own summations.

... and then rely on LexisNexis et al.? Unfortunately it seems that (US) courts don't really have a good collation of cases (as opposed to collated laws which exists as the US Code).
Sir, I'm afraid your bias is showing...
Pretending PreagerU is anything but blatant propaganda is silly.
Pretending Wikipedia isn't also, is silly. This week's nonsense with the definition of 'recession' is proof enough of that. If you want to argue magnitude, you've already conceded what Wikipedia is (and I don't deny PragerU is what you claim it is).
Wikipedia is not perfectly unbiased, but if you honestly believe it is even comparable to PragerU you should seriously talk to someone about your biases and perception of the world.

There are left-wing equivalents of PragerU (ex: the Gravel Institute) that are just as far away from Wikipedia as PragerU is.

The method of this study was to deliberately construct a bias on wikipedia, which the researchers were able to successfully pull off with measurable effect.
I think it depends on the topic and section of wikipedia.

If you get into the political area's of wikipeda, I think the bias of Wikipedia is pretty clear polar to that of PragerU.

If you stick to the pure hard sciences (physics as an example) and non-controversial events (like an earthquake) then sure they are unbiased

Can you give an example of a wikipedia page that you think shows bias on the same level as PragerU?
> I think the bias of Wikipedia is pretty clear polar to that of PragerU

As if. This article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor_genocide_question is still up despite having almost zero pertinent sources.[1] Calling that "polar" is nothing short of a stretch.

At most, Wikipedia could be said to have a neo-liberal bias, an ideology upheld by both of the US' political parties, based on policies alone and not on each individual voter's personal and nuanced adherence. The parties are wrongly assumed to be polar opposites on the political spectrum by most US citizens, but they're not.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kaaYvauNho

As the other poster pointed out, it's the pretense that Wikipedia is in any way shape or form neutral that shows the bias.