Shortly after the memorial service for slain Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, which a TPUSA executive called the largest memorial service in history, Wikipedia editors created a page about the service. A few days later, a left-wing editor nominated the page for deletion with discussion soon becoming divided, both sides noting pages on services for other public figures. Editors also smeared speakers at the memorial, some invoking comparisons to Nazi Germany.
The deletion effort comes on top of others for politically-important subjects on Wikipedia, including the page for Erika Kirk, which withstood a deletion effort in the wake of her husband’s assassination earlier this month where some editors engaged in crass comments. It also comes following efforts to smear Kirk after his death.
Wikipedia’s article on the service was created Sunday night with basic information. Editors gradually filled in more about the services and major moments. Numerous instances of vandalism and smears occurred initially, such as edits calling Kirk a member of the Ku Klux Klan, mocking the ceremony, and replacing an image of Erika Kirk and President Donald Trump with a painting of the devil and the anti-Christ. One new account repeatedly linked to the page on Horst Wessel, a violent Nazi stormtrooper the Nazi Party glorified as a martyr after he was killed by communists, and made other edits making Nazi comparisons, often citing questionable or unrelated sources.
Such edits were all quickly removed by other editors and the page locked to prevent further such attacks. However, editor David Tornheim soon followed up by adding negative information, such as smearing conservative commentator Tucker Carlson with antisemitism claims regarding his memorial speech. Tornheim discloses being involved in left-wing activism on his profile page. At this time, editor “The Midnite Wolf” nominated the page for deletion arguing it failed the “10-year test” on Wikipedia, referring to an essay section that represents common community views on bias towards recent events. Midnite Wolf’s profile page contains pro-trans messaging and a George Floyd protest photo, one of many the editor uploaded.
Multiple editors quickly supported deleting the article, including Simon McNeil, who edits as “Simonm223” on Wikipedia. McNeil and other left-wing editors claimed the article was “cruft,” a slang term for junk, with McNeil further stating the service was a “publicity stunt” and only warranted a few sentences in the article on Kirk’s assassination. In later comments to editors arguing to keep the article, McNeil called it a “political rally disguised as a memorial service” and “barely even a significant event in Kirk’s death.” Previously, McNeil supported deleting the page on Iryna Zarutska’s murder during that discussion and himself nominated the United Kingdom grooming gang scandal’s article for deletion, prompting social media outrage.
Editors voting to keep the page argued that not enough time had passed to fairly judge the event’s notability, significant coverage of the event existed and the context in which the service occurred was notably distinct. Some cited the current length of the article on the assassination, where editors opposing the current article argued its contents should be moved and trimmed, as making a separate article better. One editor supporting a merge expressed concern keeping the page would help make Charlie Kirk a martyr, claiming this would be inconsistent with maintaining Wikipedia’s neutrality.
Funeral and memorial services for other public figures also came up with each side citing them to defend their stance. Opponents argued most articles on funerals involved government figures. However, other editors cited Wikipedia’s article on the funeral for black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as precedent for articles on services for private citizens, though opponents countered King was a special case. However, articles have also been created that are primarily about services of pop star Michael Jackson, New York Yankees player Babe Ruth, and King’s wife Coretta Scott King. An article just about President Abraham Lincoln’s hearse was even approved for an appearance on Wikipedia’s front page.
Trump’s 2024 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden was also cited given it has an article that was kept following a deletion discussion. An admin who voted to keep the article at the time, expressed regret about it and voted to delete the Kirk memorial service article. Wikipedia’s page on the rally was criticized during that deletion discussion for being negatively-slanted and focused on partisan attacks comparing it to a Nazi rally with many left-wing voters pushing to keep the page, some even with the desire that it focus on such comparisons. Similarly, one editor voting to keep the article on Kirk’s memorial called the service trashy yet argued the criticism and controversy made it notable.
During the deletion discussion about the memorial service page, editors continued expanding it with editor “Leaky Solar” repeatedly adding negative content such as material suggesting Trump’s popularity was collapsing and claiming he was overshadowed by other speakers with a citation to Reason Magazine. While considered reliable on Wikipedia, Reason is also treated as an opinionated source often requiring attribution, yet the material treats some claims about Trump’s popularity as fact. Particularly negative were edits regarding the speech given by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. This included portraying Miller’s speech as militant and evidence of rising Christian nationalism eroding separation of church and state.
Subsequent edits went further by likening Miller’s speech to one by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels and referencing the death of Wessel. However, one source cited for the material does not directly tie such comparisons to the memorial speech and even dismisses the Nazi comparison by stating both were actually invoking older concepts of Christian martydom. The reference to Goebbels was subsequently removed by another editor, though the Wessel comparisons remained.
Numerous deletion discussions have attracted outside attention recently due to significant political implications. In addition to the deletion attempts on the page for Iryna Zarutska’s murder and the UK grooming gang scandal, editors also sought to delete an article on Iranian calls for Israel’s destruction. Unlike the former discussions, which failed to get the pages deleted, the latter resulted in the article merging into an article on Iran-Israel relations, burying its contents, despite most voting to keep the article. Another article targeted recently was the page for Kirk’s widow as reported in Fox News. While noting overwhelming support for keeping the article, Fox also noted site policy focuses on the alleged strength of arguments.
Left-wing Slate criticized Fox’s reporting on the discussion, claiming it framed Wikipedia editors as heartless when Slate author Stephen Harrison insists comments were filled with sympathy. Most editors voting to delete the page did not make a point of expressing sympathy for her and some commenting in the discussion spoke harshly. When one editor said Erika Kirk would be more notable since she would be leading Turning Point USA, admin Michel Aaij, who edits as “Drmies” on Wikipedia and is a former member of the Arbitration Committee often likened to a Supreme Court, dismissively referred to Turning Point USA as a “club” when rejecting the argument.
Particularly egregious was a comment by editor “Journalist” when voting to delete the page, stating she was “only famous because of her awful husband.” When challenged, Journalist repeated the remarks and engaged in further attacks on Kirk. When this conduct was reported, admins initially advised giving a mere warning, changing position only due to Journalist’s insistence on continuing such attacks with the final result being a brief ban. Journalist served as an admin on Wikipedia from 2005 to 2019, losing privileges due to inactivity. Previously, Journalist was promoted to the now-defunct Mediation Committee, a counter-part to the Arbitration Committee that played an advisory role on content disputes.
Contrary to arguments minimizing criticism of Wikipedia’s handling of articles about Kirk in the wake of his assassination, numerous editors smeared Kirk and some edits have persisted for extended periods of time. This includes mocking his last words and claiming as fact at the top of Kirk’s page viewed by millions that he engaged in targeted harassment campaigns to silence others, ignoring his own statements upholding free speech and condemning harassment. Such actions fit into Wikipedia’s long history of smear campaigns and hoaxes.
They are also consistent with the site’s poor handling of people’s deaths as occurred with the death of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger where editors praised the person who boasted about being the first to change his page to use past tense, including some making disparaging remarks about Kissinger. Some made rejoicing comments when proposing to include Kissinger in the “recent deaths” section of the site’s front page. One person commenting on social media remarked about feeling a “high” over changing the page on Queen Elizabeth to past tense. Editors also bungled in handling the death of Pope Francis and election of his successor Pope Leo XIV.
T. D. Adler edited Wikipedia as The Devil’s Advocate. He was banned after privately reporting conflict of interest editing by one of the site’s administrators. Due to previous witch-hunts led by mainstream Wikipedians against their critics, Adler writes under an alias.
Read the full article here
