The situation that has developed due to the manner of Katefan0's exit from Wikipedia has damaged my reputation. All I did was ask Katefan0 to identify herself on her User page. I also posted her identity on Hive2 at the same time, but I'm doing that for any and all of the 900 administrators, as information becomes available.

My immediate interest is to generate a responsible and coherent discussion of issues in this case that is not personal, but instead is focused on journalistic ethics. One principle is that journalists should "remain free of associations and activities that may compromise your integrity or damage your credibility."

I have asked an ethics columnist at Poynter to look into the situation with Katefan0. The fact that this columnist lives in St.Petersburg, where Wikipedia is located, means nothing to me. My guess is that she might be more interested in Wikipedia than other journalists, but I have zero evidence that it is relevant at all.

If this columnist is not interested, then my next step will be to take it to the Senate gallery Standing Committee. I believe they might be interested in reviewing Katefan0's qualifications for a gallery press credential, based on what I read on their site:


This Standing Committee consists of other mainstream journalists, who can be expected to look at the issue from the perspective of journalistic ethics.

If the Poynter columnist has no interest in this situation, and after that if the Standing Committee also has no interest in the issue, then maybe I'll seek a statement from Congressional Quarterly about their own policies that relate to this matter.

In all of these possible actions, I'm trying to get a hearing on the question of journalistic ethics. My original communication to Katefan0 mentioned that "I believe that your failure to identify yourself violates the spirit of journalistic ethics. Administrators should not be anonymous on Wikipedia in light of their power to shape content."

I believe that mainstream journalists will generally frown on members of their profession becoming anonymous administrators at Wikipedia. If I'm right about this, then I want to get the word out. If I'm wrong, then I want to know that also.

This is bigger than one Wikipedia administrator's career. If those who post on this topic cannot see this, then I don't know how to explain it to them.