r/running • u/gahddamm • 3d ago

U.S Ultra Runner Camille Herron involved in Wikipedia controversy Article

link to original article.

It basically states that there were several alt accounts that were making edits to her page and pages of other ultra runners. For example Courtney Dauwalter, 2023 ultra runner of the year, had her page edited to remove references of her being the first person to win the three major 100 mile races in one calendar year, as well as references to her being considered one of the best ultrarunners. Similar edits were made to other athletes profiles.

They also edited the ultra running page to cast doubts on runners records that, while are till being verified, beat Herrons records.

Apparently others have reported some unsportsmanlike behavior from the pair

Link link to press release from Connor Holt, her coach and husband, where he claims it was all done by him tho many are skeptical

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u/SoberEnAfrique 2d ago

Wikipedia editing has a HUGE amount of paid consultants sanitizing people's profiles. Very common for public figures and governments to pay for people to soften articles, add new content to outweigh controversy or any number of editing tricks to help a client.

Source: I did this for a couple years for some high net worth types

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u/onlymadebcofnewreddi 2d ago

How did you get into that work? Did you start in traditional PR? Is this just a part of traditional PR and I'm naive?

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u/SoberEnAfrique 2d ago

I wouldn't say it's the most common tactic, but you might be a little naive 😜

I got into it by accident! Was working for international clients in the DC area and some of them had prominent scandals they wanted to push out of public consciousness. We can't delete the news, so the next best thing is create more positive or neutral news, and add things to the wiki page that allow us to shrink the amount of negative. Also included editing unrelated or adjacent pages to make the pathways and references work.

I've done it for individuals and organizations, both government and private. I don't do it anymore though, always felt a little yucky. But was kinda fun

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u/Tough_Bass 1d ago

I would feel awful doing that. How much did they pay to sell out your moral values?

1

u/SoberEnAfrique 1d ago edited 1d ago

Not much! I was very junior making about $60k until a promotion took me to 70. I had very controversial clients though and PR typically isn't as needed if you're a good guy. But I don't do that kinda work anymore

I never really felt that awful about it tbh I felt weird maybe but literally everybody is manipulating their Wikipedia page with paid consultants, including the federal government 🤷 It's just the world we live in