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An insidious battle of words has been raging online recently. A longtime Wikipedia editor going by the name (Andrew Philip Cross) has been editing the Wikipedia pages of dozens of left wing, anti-war, anti-Isreal, neo-con skeptic, journalists and bloggers. In total he has made 133,612 edits spanning a 14 year period.
His most noticeable edits have been on the pages of Media Lens, with over 800 edits, and George Galloway with more than 1,800 edits. Other pages edited by Cross over the years include the pages of Alex Salmond, Peter Oborne, John Pilger, Owen Jones, Jeremy Corbyn, Tim Hayward, Diane Abbott, Neil Clark, Lindsey German, Vanessa Beeley, AlterNet, and Max Blumenthal.
The attacks seem to be a subtle and vindictive attempt at subversively re-writing history. As you can see from the list above the attacks are mainly directed towards people from alternative media sources with large followings that regularly question the mainstream media narratives on Syria and Russia. Many suspect Cross is not working alone. Ex-ambassador and political blogger, Craig Murray, tweeted a list of all the people who've had their Wikipedia pages edited by Philip Cross on the very same day leader writer for The Times, Oliver Kamm, tweeted about them in a hostile fashion. Pro-Israeli news outlet Haaretz have even been defending Philip Cross in an article titled The Witch Hunt Against a 'pro-Israel' Wikipedia Editor. Below is a great rundown from Craig Murray explaining the whole Philip Cross affair so far.
The Philip Cross Affair | Craig Murray 05/18/2018
“Philip Cross” has not had one single day off from editing Wikipedia in almost five years. “He” has edited every single day from 29 August 2013 to 14 May 2018. Including five Christmas Days. That’s 1,721 consecutive days of editing.133,612 edits to Wikpedia have been made in the name of “Philip Cross” over 14 years. That’s over 30 edits per day, seven days a week.
Who Is (Andrew) Philip Cross?
Philip Cross joined Twitter 08/13/2011.
Over the last few weeks Philip Cross has changed his Twitter name 3 time. His original name was [@]philipcross63, then around 2 weeks ago he briefly changed it to [@]Wikipedianhidin. He has since changed his name to @philipcross1963.
The 1st person to follow Philip Cross on Twitter is rather revealing. Padraig Reidy (@mePadraigReidy) is the Editorial Director for a communications and PR agency called 89 up @89_up. 89up specialize in tech driven social campaigns for great causes, NGOs, and charities.
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Philip Cross and Padraig Reidy both follow each other.
They've exchanged 6 tweets between 01/19/2012 - 06/15/2013
NOTE: The 2nd person to follow Philip Cross was someone called Jamie Cross (@JamieJCross). Maybe a relation?!
Who Is 89up?
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According to the 89up website their mission is to make the world a more "open, pluralistic, and democratic place" by running campaigns for charities, NGOs and not-for-profits that "want to make real change in the world". The CEO is Mike Harris and, as noted above,Padreig Reidy is Editorial Director.
In October 2017, 89up published a report that was funded by the 3 biggest media groups in the UK calling for the UK government to scrap legislation designed to regulate the press in the UK. The legislation 89up were trying to suppress was based on recommendations from the Leveson inquiry.
"The Leveson inquiry had uncovered disturbing evidence of newspapers routinely fabricating stories, hounding ordinary citizens, covert surveillance, and even whipping up racism, xenophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry, largely without accountability." - Media Reform Coalition
How the mainstream media became a neo-Stalinist propaganda regime for wealthy neocons | Media Reform Coalition - 12/03/2015
The 89up report, Levesons Illiberal Legacy, was financed not just by the The Telegraph Media Group, but also by Rupert Murdoch’s News UK – whose CEO is Rebekah Brooks (and which publishes The Sun and The Times) – and DMG Media, publishers of that wonderful newspaper of repute, the Daily Mail.
Among its co-authors is Padraig Reidy, editor of Little Atoms – which published Bloodworth’s screed – and Editorial Director at 89up, Little Atoms’ publisher. Amazingly, the Telegraph trumpeted the new 89up report as an “independent” publication under the alarmist headline that new press regulation would stop investigative journalism “dead in tracks.”
Who exactly were Little Atoms editor Padreig Reidy and his colleagues at 89up defending with their courageous “independent” report, funded by the very newspaper moguls being investigated for phone-hacking, bribes, political corruption, and other serial law-breaking?
The public interest? Clearly not, given that the public overwhelmingly supports the need for a new vehicle of self-regulation underpinned by statute. Reidy and his cohorts, it seems, for all their glorious lip-service to freedom of speech, believe that the corporate-dominated press know far better than the public the press is supposed to serve. Money talks. Much louder than people.
Another propaganda campaign 89up have tried to fool the public with is based on a 2018 report they published that pushes the narrative that Russia influenced the 2016 Brexit referendum in the UK. Their conclusion was simply that RT bought some adverts on Twitter and Facebook around the time of the Referendum.
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89up releases report on Russian influence in the EU referendum | 89up - 02/10/2018
The first part of 89up's report - Putin’s Brexit? The influence of Kremlin media & bots during the 2016 UK EU referendum - has been reported in The Observer. Part two of 89up's report has been published in The Times
Their bias research into Russia and their alleged interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum can also be found referenced in articles from Tech Crunch, the Daily Mail, and the Guardian. This hasn't gone unnoticed by other media outlets, such as the ones 89up like to attack. Both RT and Sputnik have pointed out how 89up's bias and partial reports end up in the western MSM news.
Who is Padraig Reidy?
Padraig Reidy writes for a number of MSM organizations including Haaretz, Independent, The Guardian. He's had articles published in major news outlets with headlines such as: Theresa May: The Hillary Clinton of Great Britain?, MH17: five of the most bizarre conspiracy theories, and Obama finds his inner Irishman.
Another person who's recently found himself on the receiving end of the Wiki-smears and media attacks by Padraig Reidy is the chair in politics, society and political journalism at the University of Sheffield, Professor Piers Robinson**.
Below are some examples of Twitter activity between alleged ringleader Padraig Reidy, his suspected accomplices, and their victims.
[@]mePadraigReidy was retweeted by [@]OliverKamm confirming both their dislike for RT news.
The 2st person Philip Cross followed was @OliverKamm
[@]mePadraigReidy and [@]NeilClark66 have spoken briefly on twitter between 20/08/2012 - 19/11/2012
[@]mePadraigReidy has tweeted (trolled) [@]georgegalloway over a dozen times between 11/03/2011 - 03/18/2018
George Galloway
Over the years George Galloway, British politician and host of Sputnik news on RT, has been one of the main focuses of this wiki-smear campaign. Here we can see one of the many hit pieces Padraig Reidy has written about him over the years and published to his own website. This problem has persisted for so long and has involved so many people that George Galloway has even decided to put up a £1000 reward for the positive identification of Philip Cross.
Some have said that Oliver Kamm himself is actually Cross. This I'm unsure about because being lead writer for the Guardian and a full time Wikipedia troll would be unmanageable. I suspect the main culprits orchestrating this Wikipedia propaganda campaign is Padraig Reidy and Wikileaks hating Mike Harris from 89up. This insidious Wikipedia campaign falls very much inline with 89up's M.O. as noted above. Although I'm unable to positively identify Cross, I do believe (Andrew) Philip Cross is his real name and that he was born in 1963.
Suspects
I have identified 2 possible people that might be the (Andrew) Philip Cross everyone's looking for.
Philip Cross, Executive Director of a company called Tradesbank Ltd. According to UK Companies House website this Philip Cross was born in August, 1963. He's also the director of a number of other businesses that are registered under different addresses and variations of his name. Philip CROSS - 5, Phillip CROSS - 3, Phil CROSS - 2, Phil CROSS - 4.
Andrew Cross, blogger at HSBC Private bank. The reason this could be him is because Oliver Kamm once worked for HSBC private bank.
Other people who maybe involved, know something, or who are connected to the Wiki-smear campaign in some way.
(All Twitter names)
[@]mePadraigReidy - Editorial Director @89up
[@]mjrharris - CEO of @89up
[@]JoshFeldberg - Director of Social Media @89up
[@]bobfrombrockley (knows Padraig Reidly)
[@]OliverKamm - Lead Times columnist
[@]DAaronovitch - Times columnist
[@]J_Bloodworth - Freelance journalist for the Guardian, Times, Independent, etc
FORTIFIED
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