this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the nonprofit operator of Wikipedia alleging a pattern of liberal bias in articles on the collaborative encyclopedia.

"I write to request information about ideological bias on the Wikipedia platform and at the Wikimedia Foundation," Cruz wrote to Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander in a letter dated October 3. "Wikipedia began with a noble concept: crowdsource human knowledge using verifiable sources and make it free to the public. That's what makes reports of Wikipedia's systemic bias especially troubling."

Citing research from the conservative Manhattan Institute, Cruz wrote that "researchers have found that articles on the site often reflect a left-wing bias." Cruz alleged that "bias is particularly evident in Wikipedia's reliable sources/perennial sources list" because it describes "MSNBC and CNN as 'generally reliable' sources, while listing Fox News as a 'generally unreliable' source for politics and science. The left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center gets a top rating, but the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, is a 'blacklisted' and 'deprecated' source that Wikipedia's editors have determined 'promotes disinformation.'"

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wikipedia just tells the truth it just happens that the truth has a left-wing bias

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

It must not be protecting pedofiles hard enough

[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

I think most of the world is considered left wing compared to the US.

Hell, even our "extreme right" would be more left leaning than the US left.

So yeah, any website that has international contributors, will be "left wing" from the perspective of the US.

[–] wolfeh@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

To quote "Stephen Colbert" (the character) at one of the George W. Bush White House Correspondants Dinners:

Reality has a well-known liberal bias.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 41 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Cruz alleged that “bias is particularly evident in Wikipedia’s reliable sources/perennial sources list” because it describes “MSNBC and CNN as ‘generally reliable’ sources, while listing Fox News as a ‘generally unreliable’ source for politics and science.

Fox News, the one that successfully argued in court they they were for entertainment purposes only and not actual news? That Fox News?

[–] thatonecoder@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago

Here's an opinion piece about this, in case anyone is curious: https://niemanreports.org/fox-dominion-lawsuit/

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 73 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Left wing bias = says objectively true things about me I don’t like.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

This is literally where we are right now.

My MAGA parents told me that they consume news "from both sides". When pressed to name a single source that they consider on the left, they could not. They didn't even try to say "CNN" or some shit, they simply could not come up with a single source.

So thankfully, they recognized their irrationality, and are no longer MAGA.

Lol jk 🥲

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[–] 0ndead@infosec.pub 194 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ted Cruz thinks we should stop attacking pedophiles

[–] frunch@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago

Anything he does from now on is an attempt to distract us from that uncharacteristically candid statement

[–] Godort@lemmy.ca 153 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Cruz alleged that "bias is particularly evident in Wikipedia's reliable sources/perennial sources list" because it describes "MSNBC and CNN as 'generally reliable' sources, while listing Fox News as a 'generally unreliable' source for politics and science. The left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center gets a top rating, but the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, is a 'blacklisted' and 'deprecated' source that Wikipedia's editors have determined 'promotes disinformation.'"

It's kind of funny how when your goal becomes to present factual information, there aren't many especially right-leaning sources. I wonder why that might be.

Can you think of why that might be the case, Ted?

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 25 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'm not sure ol' Rafael is capable of thought.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 43 points 3 days ago (4 children)

He is very capable of thought. He's an intelligent and well educated man who puts on a persona to further his own agenda. He is lacking empathy and morals, not thought.

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[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Also, these ding-a-lings keep confusing rather mid corporate news outlets as "liberal". Also, it's awfully interesting how butthurt the right is about SPLC, I have to say. They've been howling about that one for years. Gosh, I wonder what it is about SPLC that makes them so angry?

Reminds me of how they used to howl about ACORN until they had that little weasel O'Keefe make up a bunch of bullshit about it. Of course, a lot of these little shits have been whining about Wikipedia ever since its inception, since people constantly use it as a way to refute their LIES.

[–] loutr@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 days ago

Also, these ding-a-lings keep confusing rather mid corporate news outlets as "liberal".

This is how you move the Overton window.

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[–] voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 2 days ago

Not false. Reality is proven to have a left-wing bias.

[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 days ago

Any publisher of truth exhibits strong anti-fascist bias. That's because fascism is inherently anti-truth

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago

I love it when this comes up in internet arguments. The mob often agrees with an individual's statement that Wikipedia is bad, and then when asked for an example it's always 100% something absolutely insane. The logical conclusion is that we're all wrong in different ways, but some people simply refuse to accept it and argue with the encyclopedia.

[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Do not treat this as just a tantrum. It's the right's playbook of moving the overton window to the right by taking extreme positions and invoking the golden mean fallacy. It certainly has worked on MSM.

[–] jve@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

golden mean fallacy

Ooh that’s a new one for me.

Asserting that given any two positions, there exists a compromise between them that must be correct.

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Argument-to-Moderation

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[–] emmanuel_car@fedia.io 67 points 3 days ago (1 children)

while listing Fox News as a 'generally unreliable' source for politics and science.

You mean that Fox News that argued it’s an entertainment show that no reasonable person would take seriously?

[–] ultranaut@lemmy.world 57 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is this the same Fox News that had to pay out a $800,000,000 settlement for lying about the 2020 election?

[–] maccentric@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Did they ever pay that? Where’d the money end up?

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[–] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 38 points 2 days ago

Reality has a liberal bias

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 36 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I recently looked into this on another forum where someone shared some articles supposedly proving bias. One article was itself highly biased to the right, so not particularly credible.

The other article, from an organization that ranked the bias of news sources, was very neutral and objective, took accusations of bias seriously, went into detail, and removed the "unbiased" classification from Wikipedia, but didn't conclude any provable bias, leaving it unranked. The best example of bias they had was the fact that articles on socialism and communism didn't list Soviet atrocities, but those atrocities have their own pages and are also mentioned on pages of the countries involved, so that was not a great example.

All these accusations are just the result of a massive right-wing campaign against facts and reality-based reporting. Everything that doesn't follow their propaganda is biased, according to them.

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[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

The truth has a left wing bias.

[–] PixeIOrange@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 47 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If reality is left of you, maybe your position is far too right?

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

No it's obviously reality that's to blame!

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 days ago

Reality does not have a right-wing bias. Reality does not have a left-wing bias. But when the right has festered into such an anti-scientific culture as to be at war with truth and reality itself to the point at putting us all at an accelerated risk of a new dark age - then reality is maybe just a little more biased in favor of literally everyone else.

[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 56 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The point of him making this dumb comparison is to quietly sell the idea to The Stupids that Heritage, Fox and other propaganda places deserve equal consideration as reality.

[–] whiwake@lemmy.cafe 25 points 3 days ago (3 children)

They need to make their own site. Magapedia? Wokepedia? Pedopedia?

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You mean Rafael Cruz, who uses the chosen first name of Ted?

[–] balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

That's a mighty deportable first name. Would be a shame if people reported him to ice until they managed to find someone so ignorant they try to arrest him.

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 45 points 3 days ago

Reality has a left wing bias

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why are we still taking these right wing fascist morons seriously?

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

Because they have a fuckload of power right now? Now, it’s really nore that we should take the problem seriously and the people should be dragged through the streets, so if that’s what you’re getting at then hell yea.

[–] balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Now seems like a good time to do a backup.

For local use: https://www.howtogeek.com/260023/how-to-download-wikipedia-for-offline-at-your-fingertips-reading/

If you have a server: https://blog.stefan-koch.name/2024/11/14/self-hosting-wikipedia

(Kiwix-serve is what you're looking for)

Unfortunately I can't vouch for either of these instructions as I followed instructions from a now defunct privacy podcast.

[–] saimen@feddit.org 16 points 2 days ago

Sounds like the modern equivalent of burning books to me.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

To fascists like Cruz, "left wing bias" means "they are reporting unbiased data instead of compliantly rewriting everything to align with our centralized propaganda machine."

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 38 points 3 days ago

"Wahhhh! They don't let us lie to you and treat us as reliable sources!"

I can't stand these scum...

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Attacking Wikipedia can not be normalized, we must protect it.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I continue to think its extremely insensitive to call him Ted. He doesn't believe in preferred names. Use his real name Rafael Edward Cruz. Yes its /s but I'm serious. Call that POS Rafael.

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[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Ted Cruz picks a fight with mirror, accusing it of falsely making him look like Grandpa Munster grew a beard.

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[–] Naevermix@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Sorry Ted, no one will ever forget how Trump made your suck his cock after he insulted your wife.

[–] decapitae@sh.itjust.works 23 points 3 days ago

Apparently things like truth and reality are left wing now. Good luck with that, psychotic ultra right wingers.

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