And the winner is....everyone

This past week saw a political controversy of sorts. Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball had Ann Coulter on the program. During the interview, calls were taken and one such caller was Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Presidential candidate John Edwards. She came on to ask Ann Coulter to stop the personal attacks on her husband. For those who haven't followed, in the past, Ann has suggested that John Edwards had a bumper sticker that read "Ask Me About My Dead Son" (referring to the Edwards son who passed away at 15 years of age), called John Edwards a faggot and most recently said that she would no longer talk about John Edwards, she just would wish he would die in a terrorist attack.

For those that have spent more than 10 seconds listening to Ann Coulter, this is what would be called par for the course for her. That being said, Ann Coulter is correct when she claims that the Edwards campaign uses her remarks to raise money. One needs only go to the Edwards homepage and, after skipping the intro, is a tally meter congratulating everyone for reaching their donation goal of $9 million dollars by June 30th. Directly underneath that tally total is a link to what Ann Coulter has said about the Edwards campaign. Ann Coulter is a financial boon to the Edwards campaign, and one has to wonder just how much John Edwards really minds the attacks, given they are probably his most effective money raising strategy, given he is trailing both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama amongst the Democratic hopefuls when it comes to acquiring campaign cash.

Ann Coulter benefits as well here. Ann is plugging the release of her most recent book in paperback, and at a time where even some Republicans have begun to back away from her, and some newpapers have went as far as to drop her syndicated column, nothing helps book sales quite like contrived controversy. Let's not kid anyone, she wasn't on a giant of a news show when she appeared on Chris Matthew's program, it is one of the lowest rated news shows on cable, hardly an outlet that will generate more than a few hundred thousand viewers on any given evening. By national programming standards, that is a pittance. But the buzz that went with the controversy of taking on a candidate's wife will get the moonbats into the bookstore if they haven't already bought the hardback version.

Even Chris Matthews wins here, because for a brief moment in time, people get to talk about his show, as though it means something, which doesn't happen every day when so few people normally watch it. It becomes a basis for people to tune in in hopes of seeing another like controversy, even though one on this scale isn't likely to happen again any time soon, as higher profile guests will now think twice about appearing on the program for fear of being "ambushed" by another staged caller calling in. But for a nanosecond, people will pay attention to Chris Matthews, which is a nanosecond longer than they normally would have.

So at the end of the day your winner here is.....everybody.

Update - Letting some others do the legwork this time

Police: Wiki Confession an 'Unbelievable Hindrance'

Computers Tied to Wikipedia Posting About Nancy Benoit Seized by Authorities

By DAVID SCHOETZ

June 29, 2007 —

A Wikipedia posting about the death of pro wrestler Chris Benoit's wife that preceded the discovery of the Benoit family's bodies has become a major obstacle in the murder-suicide criminal investigation, authorities told ABC News.

"It is unbelievable what a hindrance this has put on our investigation," said Lt. Tommy Pope, a spokesman for the Fayette County, Ga., Sheriff's Department.

"We've got to put a lot of effort and time into working to prove or disprove that someone put up a hoax situation or that somebody was conceiving the death from out of state," Pope said, adding that investigators have been flooded with tips regarding a Web posting that's very likely a bizarre coincidence.

Police have traced the Wikipedia posting and subsequent anonymous confession and apology to an IP address in Connecticut. Pope said local authorities there are working with his department and have seized computer equipment from the person responsible for the postings.

"We know who the person is," Pope said, adding that police wouldn't reveal his or her identity until early next week. By then they hope to have determined whether the person was implicated in what police earlier this week called a double murder-homicide.

If the person had knowledge of the death before police discovered the body, he or she could face criminal charges.

The anonymous Wikipedia poster confessed early this morning to changing the entry for professional wrestler Chris Benoit to mention that his wife was dead -- 14 hours before the police had even discovered the bodies of Benoit, his wife and 7-year-old son, Daniel.

The confession, which was posted on Wikinews, came from the same IP address, traced to Stamford, Conn., from which the eerie posting about the pro wrestler's wife was made, an administrator for Wikinews confirmed. The WWE is based in Stamford.

"I am not connected to WWE or Benoit at all in any way," the poster wrote, describing himself or herself as an "everyday" individual, confirming a Connecticut residency, and claiming that the prescient entry was an unfortunate coincidence.

"I hope this puts an end to this speculation that someone knew about the tragedy before it was discovered," the Wikipedia user wrote.

Wikinews is the user-generated news site that falls under the same nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation as Wikipedia, the user-generated encyclopedia.

ABC News attempted to contact a person identified in a Wikipedia entry about Naugatuck, Conn., that came from the same IP Web address that police are now investigating. That person flatly denied any involvement with the posting related to Benoit and his wife's death.

The original Wikipedia posting that touched off the controversy began at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Monday, June 25.

"Chris Benoit was replaced by Johnny Nitro for the ECW Championship match at Vengeance, as Benoit was not there due to personal issues, stemming from the death of his wife Nancy," the posting read.

The posting was confirmed to ABC News by Wikipedia spokesman Sandra Ordonez on Thursday. Ordonez said Friday that the company had handed over any information to authorities that might help their investigation, including the IP address.

The company didn't have the name of the poster, but revealed the original posting about Nancy Benoit's death was stripped 47 minutes after it was added to Chris Benoit's entry, Ordonez added.

A volunteer editor flagged the post and notified the Web site's management, Ordonez said, before the company notified the police.

The writer claims in the "confession" that as speculation grew about what "personal reasons" may have forced Benoit to miss scheduled World Wrestling Entertainment events Saturday and Sunday, he or she latched onto a rumor online about the death of Nancy Benoit and posted it as "fact" on the Chris Benoit Wikipedia entry.

The Benoit entry, which has been updated hundreds of times this week, is currently locked due to "vandalism."

While there are ways to scramble IP addresses, police are often able to trace exactly where Wikipedia entries originate. "Authorities are usually very effective at figuring out where that IP address came from," Ordonez said.

Police say that Benoit asphyxiated his wife Nancy Friday, used a chokehold to kill their 7-year-old son Saturday and hanged himself with a weight machine cord early Sunday morning.

World Wrestling Entertainment contacted authorities Monday after Benoit missed scheduled events Friday and Saturday. The wrestling organization said the wrestler canceled his appearance at a Sunday night championship match, saying his wife and son were suffering from food poisoning. On Sunday, the wrestler sent a series of text messages to two of his co-workers simply listing his address. In another, he wrote, "The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open."

The pro wrestling group also made "several attempts to contact Benoit via phone and text message," but hadn't reached him as of 11 p.m. Sunday, according to a WWE statement.

The WWE, which originally posted the contents of the text messages, has since stripped them from the pro wrestling organization's Web site.

The IP address from which the first Wikipedia addition -- and subsequent confession -- was made has been flagged for "vandalizing" other Wikipedia entries in the past, including a racist edit about troubled NBA star Ron Artest.

Another entry was edited earlier this month, apparently from the same IP address, about WWE wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr., a close friend of Benoit's and reportedly one of the two recipients of text messages sent by Benoit over the weekend before the bodies were discovered.

In that entry, the IP user stripped an explicit and damaging description from the Guerrero post.

Chavo Guerrero is the nephew of Eddie Guerrero, another friend of Benoit's and a wrestler who died of heart failure in 2005. While he was reportedly clean at the time of his death, the coroner later tied the heart failure to longtime drug and alcohol abuse.

Jerry McDevitt, a lawyer for the WWE, told The Associated Press Thursday that no one at the WWE knew that Nancy Benoit was dead before her body was found Monday. "I have no idea who posted this," McDevitt said. "It's at least possible Chris may have sent some other text message to someone that we're unaware of. We don't know if he did. The phone is in the possession of authorities."

Authorities, who have ruled the incident a double murder-suicide and still have released no motive, also confirmed Thursday that federal drug agents and sheriff's officials conducted an overnight raid at the office of Benoit's personal physician, Dr. Phil Astin, in search of medical and prescription records.

The search warrant was obtained by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department in connection with the Benoit investigation, according to Chuvalo Truesdell, spokesman for the department.

Benoit had been under the care of Astin, a longtime friend, purportedly for treatment of low testosterone levels. Benoit visited Astin Friday, the day police say he killed his wife. The doctor said that Benoit showed no signs of distress at their meeting.

Anabolic steroids were found in Benoit's home, leading officials to wonder whether "roid rage" may have played any role in the murders. Results from toxicology tests may not be completed for two weeks.

Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said that empty beer cans were found in a trash can in the Benoit home and an empty wine bottle was discovered a few feet from where Benoit hanged himself.

McDevitt, the WWE attorney, has said that Benoit and his wife had been arguing over whether the wrestler should take time off to help care for their son, Daniel, who suffers from a rare medical condition called Fragile X syndrome.

Benoit did request and receive four months off from work in 2006 for personal reasons. "He was feeling depressed, that kind of thing," McDevitt said.

On Friday, Benoit's father spoke publicly for the first time. Michael Benoit said he could not understand what might have motivated his son to murder his wife and son and kill himself, but he's hopeful the toxicology reports might finally provide some answers. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

Benoit's Wikimystery

First off, gracias for the comments on the last entry, I tried to comment on them all as best I could, while keeping in mind that the investigation is still ongoing and trying very hard to keep my own personal speculations at a minimum and keeping only with what has been established as pretty much fact to this point. It isn't easy, main stream media sees a wrestler and prescription steroids in his home and run "Roid Rage" stories with no more facts to the case than that. Don't get me wrong, steroids may eventually play a role in the events that transpired in the Benoit household, but they may not as well. We need only look at the ongoing saga that is major league baseball and the allegations that many of the players either were or still are using steroids, yet we don't see vast numbers of baseball players offing their spouses or families. Assuming that some of the allegations involving baseball players are correct, then we can establish a theory that just because you use steroids, you aren't necessarily going to kill someone. It is this common sense logic that main stream media will pass on in favor of sensationalism, because putting butts in the seats for their advertisers is far more important than getting a story right and doing what passes for responsible journalism.

That being said, I have tended to stay away from the main stream media on this story, so I don't know how much of the wikipedia mystery they have covered, so I will be brief in this aspect of the investigation, just as a little more food for thought for the thinking public.

On Sunday, after it became apparent that Chris Benoit would not be participating in the WWE Vengeance pay per view, an addition to Chris Benoit's profile appeared on his wikipedia page, stating that the reason he would not be participating was the death of his wife. The odd thing is, the bodies of Chris, his wife and son would not be discovered until the following day. Strange to say the least but it could just be coincidence. I remember back when I was in 6th grade, I was throwing a tantrum of sorts, not even sure what the tantrum was about, but it was probably that we couldn't go outside for recess because of the weather and I wished that a tornado would come and blow the school away. Little did I realize, or appreciate at that time as well, that about 10-15 miles away in Apollo, PA a tornado had touched down at roughly that very same time, blowing through a trailer park. One could surmise that because I said it and it was happening in a town not that far away, maybe I had control of the elements, though we all know that the chance that I control the weather is highly unlikely, rather it was just a coincidence and nothing more.

What made the Wikipedia entry even more suspicious however, was that when tracing back the IP address to find who had done the addition to the Benoit entry, it was learned that it came from a computer in Stamford, Connecticut. For those of you playing along with the home version of this blog, Stamford is the very same town that serves as the corporate headquarters for WWE. Other posts had been placed on Wikipedia in the past from that IP address, from a variety of topics and most of the posts were not positive, going from The Sopranos to anti-gay remarks. That being said, the very same IP address was recently also used to do some corrections to an entry for Chavo Guerrero's entry in Wikipedia, clearing up some falsehoods that had appeared under his entry. What is unique about this, is that Chris Benoit was very close with the Guerrero family, his best friend being the recently deceased Eddie Guerrero, Chavo's uncle. Chavo was also one of the wrestlers that received one of the strange text messages Chris had sent out prior to taking his own life and that now the same poster who had corrected the Guerrero entry was now stating that Chris Benoit's wife was dead a day before the authorities knew about it.

Wikinews (eventually I am convinced, everything in the world will have a wikiversion) reported that they have since received a confession from the poster of the information on the Benoit page, which they cross checked with the IP address and determined it to be legitimate, and in it, the poster states that it is all just a coincidence, that he went on the page after finding out Chris wouldn't be wrestling and just threw something on there, not thinking that what he actually wrote was in fact a fact, rather just ramblings of someone who was disappointed in the lack of Benoit's appearance at the PPV. It is one of the disadvantages of running a system where anybody and everybody is allowed to contribute, fact checking can be problematic at best. After all, it wasn't that long ago that someone had posted the comedian Sinbad was dead, only to later retract that information. While I have found wikipedia to do a pretty good job in correcting such errors, it is far from perfect and I tend to take things there with a grain of salt, so to speak. That being said, it creates a new avenue in the Benoit investigation of who knew what and when. Is the computer in Stamford in fact a WWE computer? Does the poster have a connection to the Guerrero's or the Benoit's or both and was privy to information prior to the authorities? Or is it in fact just all a coincidence, and nothing more?