(For background, see my report: “Wikipedia on Race: ‘World’s biggest encylopedia’ serves up propaganda.”)
The Wikipedia entry for American Renaissance completely misrepresents the illegal banning of this year’s American Renaissance conference by the City of Charlotte. Nowhere will one learn that local media outlets, including the Charlotte Observer and News Channel 36/WCNC, published an alleged e-mail from Charlotte City Council Mayor Pro Tem Patrick D. Cannon, in which he admitted that he had ordered the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel to break its contract with American Renaissance, and had ordered other local hotels also to refuse to do business with the organization. Instead, the passage depicts the hotel as having “promptly kicked the conference out of the hotel,” as soon as “activists” alerted it. No mention at all is made of Patrick Cannon.
But what can you expect from The Pretend Encyclopedia?
The Wikipedia Version
In late October 2010 American Renaissance announced that they will hold a conference in Feb. 2011 in an undisclosed location in Charlotte, NC, the first time in over a decade the conference was not held in the Washington, DC area, and the first time it is to be held in an "off" year for the biannual conference.http://www.amren.com/conference/2011/index.html Although Taylor wanted to keep the location a secret until closer to the start of the conference, activists discovered it was at the Airport Sheraton, who promptly kicked the conference out of the hotel. Other hotels in the area began to follow suit, shutting their doors to the conference, but Taylor has not canceled the event. He is scheduled to hold a press conference at the Charlotte City Hall on January 31 at 11:30.http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/01/29/2018426/white-nationalist-leader-to-discuss.htmlContrast that to Fred Clasen-Kelly’s report in the January 26 Charlotte Observer, in “White Nationalists’ Conference Stymied”:
When a white nationalist magazine announced a conference in Charlotte, anarchists and other groups vowed to protest or disrupt the gathering.Likewise, see the January 31 report by Richard Devayne of News Channel 36, “White supremacist group considers suing Charlotte”:
But behind the scenes the conference apparently met an unexpected obstacle: Charlotte City Council member Patrick Cannon.
On Wednesday, American Renaissance magazine said plans for its annual conference are now in limbo because the hotel where it was scheduled to take place canceled the reservation.
An e-mail Cannon sent to a constituent early this week suggested he was lobbying local hotels to refuse to book American Renaissance.
Cannon wrote that he had contacted hotels and that "they seem to be cooperating."
"An attempt was made for accommodations at another hotel but based on what I ask to take place they were denied again," the e-mail said.
When we spoke with Cannon, he said he did not send out an e-mail that was against the group coming to Charlotte. He added that he personally did not have enough time to contact all the hotels in the area. And he was just keeping some of his constituents informed.Wikipedia’s enforcers claim that only “reliable sources,” e.g., mainstream media, have any credence with them, but that, like so much else that they say, is a lie. On matters such as race, sex, and ethnicity, they typically permit only what supports their radical leftwing agenda to published, no matter how dubious the source, and censor what contradicts their politics, no matter how respectable the source.
NewsChannel 36 did obtain a copy of the email sent from Cannon's personal account and it reads:
Subject: Re: Southern Anti-Racist Network
I have all hotels, motels, and gotels on notice and they seem to be cooperating well still. An attempt was made for accommodations at another hotel but based on what I ask to take place they were denied again. It's my thought that they will still try over and over even if they end up in Cabarras County or Rock Hill. I will keep the level of intelligence up as best I can.
2 comments:
Nick-
I've had my own issues with Wikipedia. Several times I have modified the entry using correct sourcing and citation policy (regarding Wise's "Open Letter to the White Right") and my edits have all been taken down. Meanwhile, unsourced items that are flattering to Wise have remained up on the site, unchallenged.
The moderator in my case was an individual named "Muhammad," who had a picture of Malcolm X loaded onto his profile. He claimed to be neutral as well. It is to laugh.
Hirsch,
I had identical experiences three, four years ago, though not with the same guy. I had stalkers following me from entry to entry, some of them via RSS feeds of my edits, others by constantly checking my edits page, automatically removing everything I did. When I complained, the wikithugs supported their comrades, surprise, surprise.
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