Newt Campaign Defends Wiki Edits

Newt Gingrich can’t change his past, but that won’t stop him from trying to hide it. The former speaker’s communications director, Joe DeSantis, has gotten a lot of flack recently for making more than 60 changes to Newt’s Wikipedia page as well as wife Callista’s. The deletions include any mentions of his three marriages and his House ethics charges. DeSantis has petitioned Wikipedia to make these changes for months, and started directly editing the page himself in June of 2011. Last week, one Wikipedia editor commented on an edit discussion page that “this micro-managing by a Gingrich campaign director is a matter of concern to me even though you are now identifying yourself. Pointing out factual error is one thing, but your input should not go beyond that.” Another editor wrote more explicitly: “The fact that Callista is Speaker Gingrich’s third wife is well-known and indisputable. Please do not remove it from her biography.” DeSantis, however, defends his changes and insists that he has not made direct edits since informed of the site’s rules.