Vandalism as free speech: Colbert does Wikipedia’s Wales

In case you missed it, check out Comedy Central’s Steve Colbert  interview of Wikipedia Founder  Jimmy Wales.  You may recall Wales called for renewed requirements of trust on the ever-popular site in March after one of several high-profile screw-ups in the Wikipedia site. In the Colbert interview you can tell Wales doesn’t joke easily about making stuff up nor abusing the Wikipedia site as Colbert and his audience  has in the past. Last Fall Colbert, in an attempt to prove that Wikipedia’s version of truth is flexible, he asked viewers to alter the Wikipedia page on “elephant” to state that the population of African elephants had tripled in the last decade. As Colbert stated, if enough people alter the page on Wikipedia, it’s fact.  The stunt apparently got Colbert blocked from the site.