Wikipedia claims to have a neutral point of view (NPOV) policy which "aims for articles in Wikipedia to be written in an impartial and unbiased tone."
Some analysts charge that Wikipedia reality is the opposite: NPO — Never Politically Objective.
Bias in the filtering of information for human consumption is both human and algorithmic, critics say, not only at the online encyclopedia but with other reference platforms, most of which are linked with the all powerful Google search engines.
Wikipedia has veered so far left that even its own co-founder, Larry Sanger, has criticized it for abandoning neutrality. He recently doubled down on the accusation of Wikipedia’s bias: “Yes it’s biased, I’ve said so for a long time.”
Soon after President Donald Trump selected Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel for top national security posts, "Wikipedia editors changed their pages in an apparent attempt to highlight damaging information," the Media Research Center's Tom Olohan noted. "The editors appear to have carefully timed these cunning changes to be made during the lead-up to the confirmation process when the Trump nominees were under the microscope."
The self-described online encyclopedia which has become infamous for bias, substantially altered its entries for now-Secretary of Defense Hegseth, now-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and now-FBI Director Patel.
The Wikipedia page for Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, was also impacted.
Holohan noted that Media Research Center's Free Speech America "compared the last archived versions of each nominee’s Wikipedia entry before Trump announced their nominations versus archived pages after their nominations."
The changes made by Wikipedia included:
• Manufacturing entirely new negative sections on the nominees’ pages.
• Overhauling nominees’ “Personal life” sections.
• Changing the characterization of incidents described.
• Substantially increasing existing coverage of controversial material/events.
"This is likely a direct result of Google frequently using Wikipedia as a source for its 'knowledge panels,' which often appear at the top of many basic online searches," Holohan noted.
This was the case in Google searches for the Trump nominees Media Research Center researchers included in their study.
Google has given a combined $7.5 million to the encyclopedia’s parent company, Wikimedia Foundation, and its fund, Wikimedia Endowment.
Trump's selection of Hegseth to head the Pentagon was opposed by the Left from the start and Wikipedia's editors wasted no time in loading his page with "negative details and salacious evidence-free allegations and added entire sections with headers like 'Campaign to Pardon War Criminals' and 'Sexual Assault Allegation.' Wikipedia additionally crammed 'alleged sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and public drunkenness' into the introduction section of Hegseth’s page," Holohan noted.
Along with adding negative details, Wikipedia also stripped away positive details from Hegseth's page.
"Hegseth’s Wikipedia page previously noted that a drummer whom Hegseth accidentally hit with an axe suffered 'minor injuries' and reportedly rejoined the Flag Day television segment as if nothing had happened. After Hegseth was nominated, Wikipedia editors removed both of these statements, replacing them with information about a lawsuit claiming that Hegseth had severely injured the man," Holohan noted.
Patel’s Wikipedia page was "barely recognizable" after Trump nominated him to head the FBI.
"Wikipedia editors stuffed negative and absurd details into multiple sections of Patel’s page," Holohan wrote. "For example, they added a paragraph noting that a former government official accused Patel of lying about a hostage rescue operation in Nigeria. Additionally, they inserted material about former Vice President Mike Pence and former Attorney General Bill Barr opposing a promotion for Patel (on separate occasions)."
Editors also changed a section about Patel’s work attempting to ensure the release of hostages held by the Syrian government, adding a line that “the negotiations were unsuccessful.”
"When Wikipedia editors added a section on his nomination, they buffeted him with unfair personal attacks from Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin and others," Holohan wrote. "Wikipedia included Durbin’s asinine perjury accusation against Patel and a former U.S. attorney’s MSNBC-style warning that Patel was a 'real danger to democracy.' Editors also shoved in a seven-paragraph section with a 'Promotion of conspiracy theories' header."
Wikipedia editors also expanded content about Gabbard's heavily criticized meeting with former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and her views on Ukraine.
"As with several other nominees, editors beefed up Gabbard’s 'Personal life' section with negative content, highlighting her connection to the Science of Identity Foundation before writing that Trump’s transition team denied this connection," Holohan noted.
Other Trump nominees opposed by Democrats had their Wikipedia pages changed.
Now-Attorney General Pam Bondi was "smeared with accusations of making 'false claims of election fraud' in her introduction section. Pre-nomination, her page made no mention of these 'false claims,' " Holohan noted.
Now-HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s page received significant changes.
"In fact, his page got a significant facelift after March 2023, when he challenged then-President Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary. Since then, Wikipedia editors have added allegations of sexual assault and nonconsensual sharing of private images to his 'Personal life' section, as well as several stories about his 'treatment of dead animals,' " Holohan wrote.
Wikipedia editors changed the beginning of his “Political views” section, writing at the very beginning, "Kennedy's political rhetoric often uses conspiracy theories."
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