Don't like your Wikipedia page? Yon has an ap for that! It begins in a classic Yon style; throw out some vague accusations that you are being persecuted to your fan base. Wikipedia strongly discourages individuals from unduely influencing their own Wiki pages, so you'll need trusted fans to do it for you. In fact the Michael Yon page was at one point noted for being a fluff piece that relied solely on his own claims. It was changed from sourcing Yon's site to sourcing articles written by Yon on other sites or interviews of Yon by fans of Yon. The effect was the same: It was Yon in Yon's words. [Date/time stamps added to Yon thread headers. Other comments in these threads are merged on topics, from across those 3 threads.]
Bad behavior on Wikipedia is not endorsed by that community. In fact it appears that this isn't the first time that some of the newly interested editors have been warned. Wikipedia has suffered from allegations of certain elements misusing it to the point that many refuse to accept it as an authority on anything. One of definitions of such abuse is:
"Sock puppetry can take on several different forms:
- Creating new accounts to avoid detection
- Logging out to make problematic edits as an IP
- Reviving old unused accounts and presenting them as different users
- Persuading friends or acquaintances to create accounts for the purpose of supporting one side of a dispute (usually called meatpuppetry)"Wikipedida: Sockpuppetry
He had a bad bout of attacking serving Soldiers as "insane" back in February and while he couldn't deny that the screenshots were his poor grammar, he needed that detail removed from view of those that might be considering a jump onto his bandwagon. He likes to claim he caused two Generals to be fired (or accept accolades for his "Two Scalps") because of his prophecies and attacks and he didn't like that his own words and links disproved his claims. That needed to be toned down.
Unlike his previous attempt to censor what was known about him, this time he had Wikipedia heavyweights that knew the rules, and the language they needed to use to deflect attention from what they were doing. Despite their open offers to "assist" on his fanpage, they adopted an "outsider" tone on Wikipedia.
No more "we will crush them" or admissions of offering a mission to help from Yon, on Wikipedia, Yon's fans wrote as if they were vaguely aware of Yon's existence before this horrendous tragedy of justice occurred.
It is no longer noted that he admits he left the military as an E5, nor that it is unheard of for an individual with a Special Forces tab to fail to attain a minimum of E6. The most compelling of his libelous attacks on CJ Grisham have been removed. Links demonstrating his claims to have "broke" the story of BG Menard to being false have been removed. His wiki has again taken on the appearance that Yon is the super journalist at odds with military wannabes because they can't handle his glory. But what would you expect when his fans describe him as the "best English-language war journalist alive (maybe the best who ever lived)"
From reading his PR piece, one would not realize that those at odds with him in the MilBlog space have on average 5x his military experience, were honorably discharged (or continue to serve), and that most served multiple combat tours in uniform, more months each than Yon has as a journalist-blogger. (Yon has never served a combat tour in the military.)
To read his wiki puff piece, one would not know that the dispute with Military Veterans and Soldiers was a direct response to his specious, unevidenced attacks against Serving Soldiers.
Libel is a word Yon likes to throw around. He admits his attorneys have warned him multiple times to pare back his attacks. In other words, he cannot plead ignorance of the law. But libel is not the mere publication of unsavory information, but of information which cannot be proven and is likely to cause a negative perception of the target of that false information. In other words, publishing Yon's OPSEC violations is not libelous, nor is demonstrating the true timeline of events which disproves Yon's claims, but publishing an unevidenced attack on an individual as "insane" is libelous, particularly, if the intent is stated to be to damage that individual's career, as Yon has done to a serving US Army Master Sergeant.
Yon won this battle on Wikipedia. The question is whether the Vanguards of Wikipedia will allow such a concerted effort to stand, or if they'll bring in truly neutral parties to resolve it. At this point, it is difficult to say if those that protect their reputation know there is a concerted effort afoot to alter reality. The only thing that indicates they know something is afoot is the tag at the top which recognizes that the facts are in dispute.
The Tarnak Saga:
1) The Bridge Over the River Tarnak Looking at Fact and Fiction of the incident
2) From Tarnak Bridge to Bruhaha Looking at Yon's obsession for Menard
3) The Tarnak Scalp That Wasn't Looking at Yon's claims of scalping Menard
4) The Yon Conspiracy Over Tarnak: Looking at Yon's Conspiracy Theory Origins
Deviant Behavior
1) Yon OPSEC Violations: It can't be more blatant but some are in disbelief
2) Yon Publicizes Video of American Soldier Losing Legs.
3) Banned By Yon!
4) Yon's Attack on PTSD as insanity
5) The Banning of an Angel
More Links (and far from comprehensive but I may add to the list as I can):
TSA Incident: http://www.skatingonstilts.com/skating-on-stilts/2010/01/sorry-tsahaters-michael-yon-isnt-a-tsa-victim-just-an-unreliable-reporter.html (Yon complained that he was arrested by TSA for not stating his income or employer. He was actually restrained with handcuffs by Customs when he refused standard questions, particularly of people who have spent considerable time in known terrorist hot spots.)
Bouhammer Insanity Defense?: http://www.bouhammer.com/2010/06/micheal-yon-has-lost-his-marbles-and-is-an-oxygen-thief/ (When Troy went from supporter to un-endorsing him.)
Yon FB archive: http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=207730000664&share_id=118317618212252&comments=1#!/posted.php?id=207730000664&start=1770
Yon Archives on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=207730000664&start=2340
TCO: Insanity Defense?: http://tcoverride.blogspot.com/2010/04/mike-yon-has-gone-nanners.html
The Yon Defense: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/06/michael-yons-war/57483/ (A fan in the media interviews Yon and a PAO corrects the record in comments.)
The Menard Dismissal: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/816654--grounding-a-rising-military-star 31 May 2010
The unloaded weapons response: http://www.villainouscompany.com/vcblog/archives/2010/05/the_credibility.html May 2010
UJ on ROE (Official v. Lower misinterpretation): <iframe title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DUxnhr7cfOM" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>
!Yon/Tillman! USNI: http://blog.usni.org/2010/04/19/one-voice-is-a-heads-up-many-voices-are/comment-page-1/#comment-223039 (The US Naval Institute notes that many Veterans are concerned for Yon's new "style.")
The Non-Captain's Journal Defends Yon: http://www.captainsjournal.com/2010/04/19/in-defense-of-michael-yon-an-open-letter-to-milbloggers/ (One of two "Milbloggers" Yon endorses. The author is not a captain as his site name implies, but also points out Military vulnerabilities, notably the reliance on Pakistani logistics routes, for months preceding the attacks on those routes.)
Yon Interview: http://www.warisboring.com/2010/07/01/war-blogger-michael-yon-speaks-out/
In Response to War Porn: http://www.soldiersperspective.us/2011/02/12/logic-disconnect/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=logic-disconnect
Wrong on Menard: http://assolutatranquillita.blogspot.com/2010/04/to-michael-yon-thank-you.html
The Disembed: http://sjponeill.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/three-strikes/
Canadian Response: http://forums.army.ca/forums/index.php?topic=92407.0
Der Spiegel: hthttp://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,690526-2,00.html
Lawsuit!: http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/0410/Military_blogger_Yon_threatens_to_sue_McChrystal.html
Canadian Response to Bridge Allegations: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Military%20rebuffs%20call%20general%20fired/2636068/story.html
UK Takes over RC-South: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/UkTakesOverIsafsRegionalCommandSouth.htm
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