Tuesday, June 09, 2009

"A coward and an idiot"

On 6 June 2009, in retaliation for astute blog-posts which made Ed look foolish, Ed Whelan vindictively "outed" pseudonymous blogger publius, publishing on the National Review website publius' real name and employer. Whelan did so under the heading "Exposing an Irresponsible Anonymous Blogger" and spun as a principled move rather than a childish stunt. He also sent an email to publius, calling him a coward and an idiot.

The next day, someone with an IP address of 76.237.200.93 (AT&T according to WHOIS), expanded the Wikipedia entry on M. Edward Whelan III. This contributor included personal information such as Ed Whelan's full name, his year of birth, that he graduated with honors from Harvard, many career details, and the fact that "Whelan and his wife, Deborah C. Whalen, live in Arlington, Virginia."

On 9 June 2009, an anonymous Wikipedia editor from the same IP address as the earlier change has removed the information about Whelan's wife's name and his residence, with the edit summary: "not sure personal information is relevant or appropriate", which seems to imply that someone else had supplied the personal information to the Wikipedia article. In fact, it was almost certainly the same contributor who added the material, and almost certainly M. Edward Whelan III. Here is a list of contributions made from IP address 76.237.200.93.