Anonymity compromises Truth. None of the anonymous editors can be trusted. But the body of work is hugely reliable and simply A GOOD THING. I use Wikipedia every day. I’m sure the vested interests of authors in their work is compromised by the NPOV bickering and editing that follows any interesting article. I’m sure that there are shills tidying up around the public relations interests of their clients. This buffoon “essjay,” who boldly lied to that bastion of culture and unbiased journalism, The Very New Yorker Itself, wasn’t the first ethically compromised editor and he won’t be the last.
The work is bigger than that. Better than that. The Wikipedia trends toward goodness. Reminds me of the Tower of Babel in a way… only there’s no self-righteous and jealous god needing to tear it down. Is there?
The problem is not one personally insecure 24 year old academic fraud. The problem is the hundreds of wikipedians mopping up after him, clearing up any criticism that might be published on the site.