In the Seigenthaler biography incident, an anonymous editor introduced false information into the biography of American political figure John Seigenthaler in May 2005, falsely presenting him as a suspect in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[87] It remained uncorrected for four months.[87] Seigenthaler, the founding editorial director of USA Today and founder of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, called Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and asked whether he had any way of knowing who contributed the misinformation. Wales said he did not, although the perpetrator was eventually traced.[88][89] After the incident, Seigenthaler described Wikipedia as "a flawed and irresponsible research tool".[87] The incident led to policy changes at Wikipedia for tightening up the verifiability of biographical articles of living people.[90]
