COLUMBIA ? Political operatives are increasingly turning to the Web to
sling campaign mud. And it's backfiring in some cases.
Take the situation of Morton Brilliant, a Charleston native and deputy
chief of staff to former Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges.
As the campaign manager for a Georgia gubernatorial candidate, he was
accused of anonymously altering the online biography of a Democratic
primary opponent.
The information he is said to have added to the opponent's profile on
Wikipedia ? a popular online encyclopedia ? detailed the arrest of the
candidate's son on drunken-driving charges after a recent
fatal car accident in Charleston.
The opponent's campaign traced the digital footprints back to
Brilliant, who resigned Wednesday.
"My campaign manager Morton Brilliant, who is responsible for all the
work in my office, has offered me his resignation and I have accepted it,"
Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox said in a statement.
Brilliant would not comment for this report.
The information on the opponent was posted on Wikipedia.org ? a site
increasingly popular among political operatives who are trying to
disseminate negative information about their rivals.
Wikipedia operates like an online forum on which anyone ? anonymously
or otherwise ? can post information that quickly becomes encyclopedic fact
with no verification.
According to Wikipedia records, Brilliant has used the site to alter
Gov. Mark Sanford's profile several times.
The original Wikipedia entry from February 2004 read like this: "Mark
Sanford (born 1960) is the governor of South Carolina. He is a member of
the United States Republican Party. He was elected in 2002, defeating the
Democratic incumbent, Jim Hodges 53 percent-47 percent."
Since then, visitors to the site added an assortment of information ?
positive and negative ? about Sanford.
The real dispute began with posts on Nov. 16 that "Sanford has
repeatedly misstepped as governor" and included recent polling data
showing his support on the decline.
Wikipedia records show that Brilliant sought to rewrite Sanford's
down-home image. He wrote that the governor is a Florida native who moved
to his family's Beaufort plantation home while he was a senior in high
school.
It's factually correct, but certainly not the representation Sanford
wants to portray. Sanford's official biography calls the home a "family
farm."
Sanford's campaign manager Jason Miller acknowledged Thursday that he
recently posted a more positive biography about his boss.
"A couple months back, I noticed it full of attacks and inaccuracies,
so I replaced it with one of our biographies," Miller said.
Within the next two days, visitors operating under the untraceable
names "Mthig" and "Polonius" restored much of the earlier version.
Sanford isn't the only South Carolina politician whose political image
is being rewritten, but his record gets altered more than most.
Miller said he thought about changing it again but said "it wasn't
worth our time."
A month later, a visitor to the site, using a computer registered to
the state of South Carolina, reinserted the official biography. Joel
Sawyer, spokesman for the governor, said staffers in Sanford's office did
not make the change.
Since then, nearly 20 more changes were made to Sanford's profile.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said the episode was similar to a
situation earlier this year when the media discovered that some Capitol
Hill staffers were altering the profiles of members of Congress.
"If they are just adding factual information, that'd be fine," Wales
said. "But it's very hard to be neutral if you're political and supporting
one candidate."
ELECTION '06
More about Wikipedia
WHAT: Wikipedia, an open-forum online encyclopedia
Web site: http://www.wikipedia.org/
AT ISSUE: Input from campaign operatives that blur the line between
encyclopedic fact and political spin
Reach John Frank at jbfrank@postandcourier.com or
(803) 799-9051.