Revisionist history is as wrong as it is fashionable, but rarely is it as obvious as on Wikipedia, where legions of Sarah Palin fans are reportedly editing the Paul Revere entry to make it match the former Alaska governor’s version of the silversmith’s famous ride.

“And many years later, the Allman Brothers wrote this great song about the whole thing called ‘Midnight Rider’.” (Hat added due to comedy)
The list of edits is telling for an event that happened 236 years ago.
One edit was removed because a Wikipedian said the new info was “not backed by a reliable sources (it was sarah palin interview videos).”
Another shows a bit of bias against the former Republican candidate for vice president of the United States: “[A newspaper] may be a reliable source, but on this Palin clearly is not.”
The Paul Revere discussion page is basically a flame war.
A Wikipedia administrator writes “if you mention Sarah Palin you’re doing it wrong. This article is about Paul Revere, a historical figure who died nearly two centuries before Sarah Palin came to prominence. She has absolutely nothing to do with the article. I would expect to see contemporary sources and theories proposed by modern historians, but Sarah Palin is neither here nor there.”
For the blissfully unaware, Palin, a potential presidential candidate in 2012, seemed to be confused when asked in Boston about the story of Paul Revere.
Palin, on a bus tour, said Revere went on his midnight ride to notify the British that they shouldn’t confiscate American weapons.
Her actual quote was something like this: “[Revere] warned the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, by ringing those bells, and makin’ sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed.”
Perhaps Revere was the progenitor of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which came about 16 years later, but I don’t recall that from the history books I’ve read.
Revere, according to history, rode through an area north of Boston in 1775 to warn residents that British forces were on the move. He didn’t really shout “The British are coming,” because, at that time, almost everyone in the area was considered “British.”
If nothing else, the U.S. public, and a few candidates it seems, will learn more about their country this election cycle.
183 comments Add your comment
Pedro
June 6th, 2011
12:50 pm
@Doug, thanks. Seems that the Palin haters will stick to their guns (figuratively speaking of course) regardless of the historical backing. I can’t wait for the next Tina Fey mockery of her. Most of the haters actually think they are really watching Sarah being an idiot. That in itself would be hilarious if it weren’t for the fact that they also can vote.
Newsflash
June 6th, 2011
12:51 pm
CORRECTION – “Almost all” republicans are unintelligent
Kyle
June 6th, 2011
12:51 pm
You want to talk about fools lets talk about you anti-Americans that would still vote for this idiot thinking you are still going to get something for nothing. You will get more of the same and what you deserve….Unemployment. They will give you just enough to get by so you will vote for them and good luck with that crap. I live paycheck to paycheck but I’ll be the first to say it always has been and always will be about money and if your are waiting on the Government for that well then I can easily see why would vote for Obama again.
Realist
June 6th, 2011
12:51 pm
Here is a “Newsflash:” Newsflash is ignorant. Don’t generalize!
Fiction-Pedia
June 6th, 2011
12:51 pm
No one is dividing the country. It divided itself, and WILL fail miserably, precisely because you people actually care about this one non-issue and ignore the real culprits (about 98% of the corrupt congress)….And you worry about whether Odumba$$ is being investigated because he’s black, because you’ve been trained and engineered to think myopically, and that Odumba$$ and the rest of congress would be incapable of ignoring, and summarily dismantling, the Constitution.
I laugh in yopur general direction. I hope you people are prepared for what’s coming….soon, because it’s not going to be pretty. Riots, mass arrests, mass killings, martial law, and the true end of all liberty and normalcy. You will truly be “RULED” by a tyrant…and you will look back at the past and wonder why you were so unable to see the obvious.
shanti
June 6th, 2011
12:53 pm
Yet again she proves she’s a F****** git. Please do NOT let her anywhere near the White House.
Mitzymy
June 6th, 2011
12:53 pm
Sarah is just going around the country to make money since she has no job. She does make 7 figures from being on Fox, that’s why she won’t say if she is running for president or not. But that is why Mike Huckabee did not run. Fox pays them real good, and Huckabee would rather have a steady 7 figure income and build a mansion in Florida than to take a chance on running for president. Sarah is so dumb that I don’t know why she is news. The reporters following her bus said that she would not give them her agenda or where she was going. They just had to follow the bus and stop when she stopped. She probably didn’t have a set agenda as to where she was going. She has been making money on her looks every since she came on the scene, because that is all it is. There is no substance to evaluate.
left/right/whateva
June 6th, 2011
12:53 pm
americanhistoryx=wrong, get a real life. sarahs right, love it, love it, love it!!
Clinton "Skink" Tyree
June 6th, 2011
12:54 pm
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Clinton "Skink" Tyree
June 6th, 2011
12:56 pm
The media reports chapter and verse of what Sarah Palin says and somehow that reporting is called “the lamestream media” playing “Gotcha” journalism.
Sarah Palin’s ability to make up history on the fly, to fabricate it and rewrite it would qualify her for a position with the Texas School Book Commission.
Run, Sarah, Run! The primaries are going to be quite a hoot!