Reported Wikipedia vandal Timothy Hill seeking TNGA House seat vacated by Mumpower

Timothy Hill, who was at center of '07 Wikipedia flap, picks up papers to seek Mumpower's seat
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9021687



Timothy Hill (left) shown shakings hands with a Tennessee Army Reserve commander

BLOUNTVILLE — Timothy Hill, brother of state Rep. Matthew Hill and former press secretary to former U.S. Rep. David Davis, picked up paperwork to run for the 3rd House District seat Thursday, not long after Jason Mumpower announced he will not seek re-election to that seat.

Timothy Hill, of Polo Drive in Blountville, served as press secretary to Davis from January 2007 through December 2007, saying then he wanted to pursue other career options.

He had worked on Davis’ 2006 congressional campaign.

In mid-2007, Hill used a congressional computer to delete information in the online Wikipedia biographies of Davis and his brother, state Rep. Matthew Hill. As a result, Timothy Hill was ordered by Davis’ chief of staff to take additional ethics training classes conducted by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

House ethics rules ban campaign-style activities in any congressional office, including district offices.

Timothy Hill admitted that he “made a mistake” but faced no other disciplinary action.

He’d tried to delete references involving Davis’ participation in an August 1999 “lobbying airlift” arranged by King Pharmaceuticals to get King’s Altace drug onto TennCare’s preferred drug list.

The attempted changes to the Wikipedia biographies were detailed by a Wikipedia administrator in a July online article for Search Engine Land. None of the edited biographies stayed in Wikipedia’s live version for a long time, according to the administrator.

At the time, a Wikipedia administrator called the editing of Matthew Hill’s and David Davis’ online biographies “blanking vandalism.”

The Wikipedia entries noted that both Matthew Hill and Davis accepted campaign contributions from former King Pharmaceuticals Chairman and CEO John Gregory, who founded the Tennessee Conservative Political Action Committee and supports the anti-abortion group Tennessee Right To Life. Gregory has been a difference-maker in Tennessee politics by giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and causes.

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Entries on Wikipedia edited by Davis aide
Press secretary also admits deleting info on brother via federal computer
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/aug/11/entries-on-wikipedia-edited-bydavis-aide/
By Tom Humphrey
Posted August 11, 2007 at midnight

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Broer said Wikipedia has paid particular attention to submissions from congressional office computers since a “scandal” in 2006 over revisions to biographies of several members of Congress. In general, the revisions would delete negative information, such as broken campaign promises, and replace it with more favorable information.

Davis took office in January. Hill came to Washington with Davis.

Broer said “vandalism” occurs when someone deletes information from a Wikipedia article that has been properly attributed, providing the sources of the statement or documents.

Under Wikipedia procedures, if a person deems a statement unfair or inaccurate, he or she should contact the Web site and present his or her case.

Wade Munday, spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic Party, said the situation “calls the judgment of Congressman Davis and his staff into question about what is the appropriate and inappropriate use of their time as public servants.”

Munday said it would be appropriate for a political campaign, following Wikipedia procedures, to challenge information deemed incorrect on a Web site entry. Many campaigns do so, he said.

But he said it was inappropriate for “a staffer on a federal payroll” and using the U.S. House computer system to do so.

Hill said that, had he understood Wikipedia rules, he would probably have logged in as required and sought to make revisions from his home computer.

When initially contacted about the attempts to revise the Davis and Rep. Hill biographies, Hill told the News Sentinel he was not personally responsible. But he called a reporter back later to say he had spoken off the cuff on his cell phone in the midst of a hectic event involving the congressman and “miscommunicated.”

He had, indeed, made the revisions, Hill said, and “I apologize for the confusion.”