Wikipedia gets behind the NY Times to help hide story of kidnapping by Taliban

It was hidden for seven months — almost unheard of in the news world. A kidnapping by the Taliban of a reporter to the NY Times was hidden and covered up by both the print and online press. The thing is, in this case, it was done for his safety.

David Rohde, along with his interpreter and their driver, was kidnapped in Afghanistan on November 10, 2008. In response to the action, executives at the Times decided to keep it quiet, believing that publicity about the event would increase Mr. Rohde’s value to his captors, and in turn, lower his chances of survival.

Usually, when a decision is made to keep something quiet, a call is simply placed editor to editor from one publication to another. The trouble in this day in age in keeping news quiet is the obvious. We have the Internet. News travels at the click of a button whether someone wants it to or not.

And that is just what happened in this case. Or, what kept trying to happen anyway. Just days after Mr. Rohde was kidnapped, it began showing up on his Wikipedia entry. Thus started the Wikipidia editing battle.