Thanks For Nothing, Stephen: Colbert Spoils The Wiki Veep Indicator

NPR | By Mark Memmott

Published August 9, 2012 at 2:53 PM EDT

Well, tracking changes to prominent politicians' Wikipedia pages had been one way of trying to get advance notice of Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick.

But then Stephen Colbert just had to tell his Nation to start messing around with some of those veep possibilities' Wiki pages.

So now Wikipedia has protected pages such as those for Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty out of fear of "vandalism."

Thanks, Stephen. Now what will bloggers do? Report?

Update at 12:10 p.m. ET, Aug. 10. Romney's Page Too:

As the BBC points out, Wikipedia has had to lock down Romney's page as well.

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

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