[Milsurplus] Wikipedia slant
Hubert Miller
kargo_cult at msn.com
Wed Jan 27 19:11:28 EST 2016
I noticed the Wikipedia bio of Capt. Miles R. Browning, a hero of the
Battle of Midway, who was later relieved from CO of the carrier Hornet
and sent back to the States, says he was relieved after an incident
where during a movie showing, a seaman fell overboard and drowned.
This makes it sound like he was merely present during an unfortunate
incident. However the book "Dauntless Helldivers" by Harold Buell,
who was there, clarifies that Browning refused to set a search for the
man or to call a muster of the ship's crew. And that this was the
fourth incident since his captaincy of the Hornet, which included a
near-grounding and a near collision - while he was on the conn.
Another Wikipedia partial-truth example i saw: the bio of M. Gandhi.
There is not very much, for example, on his advice to the Jews of
Europe that they should surrender themselves to be massacred by the
Nazis, or his advice to England to let the Nazis have any of their
land or possessions they wanted. I did note on my recent visit to this
text, that somebody else must have griped, because a couple years
back there was nothing at all untoward about Gandhi; it was purest
hagiography.
So, remember, when you read a bio or some historical info on Wikipedia -
be just a bit skeptical about the author's own agenda.
-Hue Miller
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