Who Decides What’s True on Wikipedia?

Conversations with Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ashley Rindsberg has spent years investigating how ideological bias corrupts institutions that present themselves as neutral arbiters of truth. His book The Gray Lady Winked exposed how The New York Times got major stories wrong across decades of reporting. Now he turns his attention to Wikipedia, the internet’s default encyclopedia and one of the most influential sources of information in the world. Rindsberg finds that while Wikipedia remains a reliable resource for most topics, its most politically charged articles have been quietly captured by a small group of anonymous editors working to push a coherent ideological agenda. He and Coleman dig into how these editors operate, how a handful of people can dominate entire topic areas, and why almost nobody can stop them. They also get into the specific case of Wikipedia’s Israel-Palestine coverage, where a group of around 40 dedicated editors have made over a million edits across thousands of articles. And they discuss why all of this matters far beyond Wikipedia itself, as the encyclopedia’s biases are absorbed by Google, fed into AI systems, and baked into the information infrastructure and AI systems that will increasingly decide what counts as true. The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Ashley Rinsberg.
0:06.0	Ashley is the senior editor at Pirate Wires and New Media Company. He's also the author of Tel Aviv
0:11.8	Stories and The Grey Lady Winked, which we talked about last time he came on the show a few years ago.
0:18.0	Today we talked about the threats to objectivity in journalism. In particular,
0:22.0	we talk about how Wikipedia has evolved from an unbiased source of information to a source
0:27.6	controlled by small clicks of self-interested admins. We also talk about alternatives to Wikipedia
0:33.7	like Grogopedia. We talk about the implications of Wikipedia bias on LLMs and the
0:39.9	future of information and much more. So without further ado, Ashley Rinsberg.
0:50.2	Hello, Conversations with Coleman listeners.
0:55.0	I'm so excited to tell you about a new podcast joining the Free Press universe.
0:59.3	It's a culture show called Second Thought, hosted by the singular Susie Weiss and the hilarious Dan Adute.
1:06.5	For listeners who love diving deeper into the world around us, and who are frequently overwhelmed by the constant deluge of movies, shows, books, celebrity news, and online drama constantly demanding your attention, this is the podcast for you.
1:21.6	Every week, they'll be cutting through the noise to explain what actually matters in the world of pop culture, what everyone is watching,
1:29.1	discussing, and obsessing over, or will be soon. As someone whose pop culture knowledge
1:34.3	begins and ends with NBA highlights and chess, I'll be tuning in whenever I get the chance.
1:39.7	So check out Second Thought, available now wherever you get your podcasts.
1:44.7	Ashley Rinsberg, thanks so much for coming back on my show.
1:48.2	Thank you, Coleman. It's good to be back.
1:50.1	Years later.
1:51.4	Yeah. So I had you on a couple years ago when you wrote your book called The Great Lady Winked.
1:57.8	That was the title, right?
1:59.0	Yeah, exactly.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Free Press, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Free Press and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.