Wikipedia Co-Founder Reveals How Site Shuts Down Conservatives

In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, who had made headlines over the years for calling out the site’s liberal bias, walked him through the site’s internal blacklist.

He explained that Wikipedia maintains a “perennial sources” page that ranks media outlets based on supposed reliability, using what it describes as “public discussion and consensus.” Sanger showed Carlson how to locate the list and pointed out that outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Nation, Mother Jones, and GLAAD were among those approved by Wikipedia. “Come on!”

“These are all green lit, fully green lit,” Sanger confirmed. He then began naming some of the outlets that Wikipedia considers unreliable, including Breitbart News, the Daily Caller, The Epoch Times, Fox News, the New York Post, and The Federalist.

“So, you can’t use those as sources on Wikipedia,” Sanger explained, meaning that the narrative only gets to be told with liberal sources. 

In 2018 George Soros donated $2 million to the Wikimedia Foundation (the nonprofit that owns Wikipedia). In a press release, they describe the meddler as being “known for his extensive philanthropy to support ideals underpinning a free and open society, including access to knowledge, education, economic development and policy reform.” 

Two years prior, Wikimedia launched an endowment as a “Collective Action Fund” with the Soros-backed Tides Foundation managing it. 

An excellent new article from Ashley Rindsberg documented that the Soros link is more than just financial. Just take a look at the higher ups at Wikimedia and their (mostly direct) ties to Soros, among other left-wing organizations. 

Eileen Hershenov served as General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation from 2017-2018 - and was also General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF). He also served as General Counsel for Central European University, which was founded by Soros in 1991. 

Zack Exley was Chief Revenue Officer of Wikimedia from 2010-2013, and was also a fellow at the OSF. His involvement in Soros-backed projects didn’t end there, having also been co-founder of the Soros-funded New Organizing Fund, and Director of Organizing at MoveOn.org.  Exley helped co-found the Justice Democrats along with the Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur and Saikat Chakrabarti, who could later go on to be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief-of-Staff. 

Katherine Maher served as Executive Director & CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation  from 2016-2021, and previously as Chief Communications Officer 2014-2016. She was also a board member of Soros-funded Center for Democracy & Technology, and founder of the Soros-funded Sharek961. She’s now CEO of NPR, which has received donations from Soros, and made headlines for her prior “woke” comments on assuming the role, including publicly branding Trump a racist.  

Lisa Seitz-Gruwell. President is Wikimedia’s Endowment Chief Advancement Officer since 2011-present. Previously she was a consultant at Gruwell and Associates (among their largest clients was Soros-founded Democracy Alliance), and board member at the Soros-tied Progressive States Network. Among other positions, Gruwell was previously appointed by then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to the city’s civil service commission.”

Ethan Zuckerman, a Wikimedia Advisory Board member since 2007 has also served as a head, chair, and member of various OSF boards, and was once advisor to then-OSF President Christopher Stone

Rebecca MacKinnon, Wikimedia’s VP for Global Advocacy since 2021, also founded the  OSF-funded NGO “Ranking Digital Rights.” MacKinnon had previously been a journalist for CNN. 

Cameran Ashraf has been Wikimedia’s Head of Human Rights since 2021, served as Deputy Director OSF Internship for Rights and Governance, and is currently a professor at CEU.

Lastly, Melissa Hagemann was a Wikimedia Advisory Board Member from 2007-2018, and has been employed by the OSF for over 22 years. She was also a steering committee member of the now-defunct Open Climate Campaign.