An Irish journalism student put the much loved Wikipedia online source to the test when he added a quote to the biography of composer, Maurice Jarre. After attending a class on how closely the internet controls the news of the world, Shane Fitzgerald posted a false quote to Wikipedia and waited until someone found it to be a falsehood.
He wrote in Jarre's biography, "Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear." There was not any source attached to it so it was not an accepted quote by Wikipedia but it took off like wildfire throughout the world. Different news sources used it for their lead-ins to Jarre’s obituaries and bloggers used it to death, so to speak. It was an astounding success.
Well almost. Fitzgerald soon caught a case of the guilties and admitted that he had completely made up the quote and had made an erroneous post on Wikipedia. The Guardian of Britain was the first to admit that it had used the quote without a source and took their blows. Other newspapers did not say a thing nor retracted what they had written. They simply continued on as if nothing had happened.
So what is the lesson here? You cannot believe what you read, be it in a newspaper or on the internet or even in Wikipedia, although they do a good job of checking sources. Universities are checking papers for Wikipedia’s reshaped wording. So be careful, do your own research, read books that belong in a library, and do something unique. Be careful not to plagiarize and above all else do not post on Wikipedia unless you have a verifiable source!