Friday, November 16, 2007

As a stickler for accuracy, I should deplore anyone who puts false information on Wikipedia deliberately. Sometimes, however, it's just plain funny. This evening, for professional reasons, I found myself perusing the entry on Westlife. I found the following on the subject of Bryan McFadden's departure from the group:

"On 9 March 2004, just three weeks before Westlife were due to embark on their fourth UK and Europe tour, moon faced buffoon Bryan McFadden (Otherwise known as the lummox)left the band due to an uncomfirmed report of goat fiddling..."

Feeling immediately grateful that I wasn't drinking anything at the time I saw the above, I went to the history page to see how long that nugget of utter misinformation had lasted. About 3 hours, it appeared. The same contributor had also changed:

" The group's roots are in Sligo in the north west of Ireland, where Egan, Feehily, and Filan were in a six-member vocal group named IOYOU..."

to

"
The group's roots are in Sligo in the north west of Ireland, where four tramps were found by Louis Walsh at a bus stop. They were singing drunkenly whilst wetting themselves stuffing thier faces with donuts. WHO ATE ALL THE PIES!!"

In this case, I actually find the made-up version strangely plausible.

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