Spot on, Bill D.

Most recent studies have shown Wikipedia to be at least as reliable as Britannica, and obviously it's vastly bigger. Use it sensibly and it is a fantastic resource.

That article quoted by Kat is certainly interesting but it's not exactly strong on concrete evidence of sytematic abuse by the self-interested. The examples quoted (some of them dating back a while) are the kind of stuff that might be expected or predicted. As such it is soon noticed and - as Bill said - is quickly sorted.

By the way, LtS, it's This SCEPTRED Isle, being the story of Britain, not the US. That was indeed a quirky slightly one-dimensional race through a lot of history. But you could say the same about books by Corelli Barnett, AJP Taylor etc. They're all useful but it's better not to rely on any one of them to the exclusion of all else.