While Wikipedia has always been a lighting rod for criticism, the latest Media coverage concerning the website has left its staff and supporters in crisis.

First, Middlebury College’s History Department banned the use of the site in papers and exams. This after a serious factual error was quoted by numerous students on an exam–their communal source was Wikipedia (Read the Middlebury College weblink concerning this issue) .

Now the latest scandel to rock the website is the fact that a ‘Professor of Theology’ who published thousands of entries on the site is in fact a college dropout. This has led Wikipedia to change its policy and philosophy concerning authors (Read the CNN report on this issue).

So what is the moral in all this? Well, although I personally love Wikipedia for it overall high quality, I would NEVER consider it for serious research. Trivia—yes, Scholarship–no.

Finally, the bias of Wikipedia has been questioned by users who feel there is a liberal slant. To counter this Conservapedia has been created to represent the Conservative point of view.