"In a shocking display of political violence, 31-year-old conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10 while he was speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Since then, right-wing commentators have begun to hammer familiar targets: universities supposedly corrupting the youth with liberal indoctrination, campus administrators who failed to protect free speech, and leftist online communities and a transgender individual allegedly connected to the accused shooter."
"Fox News published a piece by Ashley Rindsberg alleging that "Leftist Wikipedia Editors Twist Facts in a Shameless Move to Smear Charlie Kirk." Another Fox story framed a routine editorial debate as an effort to "erase" Kirk's widow via her Wikipedia page. The message from Fox is that Wikipedia's thousands of unpaid volunteers are a cabal of ideologues working around the clock to tarnish Kirk's memory and memory-hole his grieving family."
"There's something deeper at work than merely creating pieces for hate clicks. These attacks aren't legitimate efforts to describe how Charlie and Erika Kirk are portrayed on Wikipedia. The point of the right-wing stories is to delegitimize Wikipedia itself, undermining the project's effort to archive facts using reliable sources. Because the endgame for Wikipedia's bad-faith attackers is post-truth. The political subordination of reality."
Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old conservative activist, was fatally shot on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. Right-wing commentators have targeted universities, campus administrators, leftist online communities, and a transgender individual allegedly linked to the accused shooter. Political figures and outlets have also attacked Wikipedia, with Utah Sen. Mike Lee accusing editors of maligning Kirk and Fox News publishing pieces alleging leftist editors twist facts and attempting to "erase" Kirk's widow. The coverage frames Wikipedia's volunteers as an ideologically driven cabal working to tarnish Kirk's memory. The broader objective of these attacks is to delegitimize Wikipedia, undermine fact-archiving, and promote a post-truth politicization of reality.
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