Kristof's fan on Wikipedia
The Oregon gubernatorial hopeful candidate has a fan on Wikipedia very invested in Mr. Kristof's self-proclaimed home state. (👋 Movement Labs)
1/19 - In what seems to be an attempt to obfuscate their presence on Wikipedia, Yad115 has changed their display name to “Smumvguhvlhwyr”, seemingly unaware that this change is tracked across Wikipedia. You can still view Yad115/Smum…’s contribution history here.
1/13 - I’ve added a brief update at the bottom of this post, detailing some changes made to the Kristof Farms website since this article was posted, as well as some of what Yad115** (**now going by Smumvguhvlhwyr) has been up to since then.
Nick Kristof, former New York Times columnist and Oregon gubernatorial hopeful, seems to have hit a snag in his bid to be the Governor of the Beaver state. Shemia Fagan, Oregon Secretary of State, announced on Thursday her office’s ruling that Nick Kristof had not met the state's residency requirements in order to run for office.
Less than fully knowledgeable on Mr. Kristof’s life and history - beyond the NYT headlines and knowing he’s got a Pulitzer or two kicking around his awards cabinet - I figured it’d be worthwhile to skim his Wikipedia article to get more context on his life in general.
While reading his wiki article, it came across as a little… advertisement-y. All just a little too glowy, and there was an odd insistence on his place of residence. When I first read the article, the intro paragraph ended with:
“Kristof resides with his family on Kristof Farms near Yamhill, Oregon.”
Oddly specific, given his residence is of no significance to anyone except himself and his electoral ambitions. So I decided to check the “Talk” and “History” tabs for his wiki article.
In the history tab, you quickly notice one user standing out like a literal red flag: “Yad115”**
**As noted in the update on the top of this article, Yad115 has, after the publishing of this article, changed their Wikipedia display name to “Smumvguhvlhwyr”, in what seems to be an attempt to obfuscate their presence/activities on Wikipedia.
…
You see, Yad115’s name displays red because they do not have their own user page setup yet, an indication that the account may be relatively new, as most seasoned Wikipedia editors generally go through the process of setting up at least a basic user page to display projects and pages they’ve proudly worked on. While it's not terribly uncommon to see an incomplete profile make an edit or two here or there on an article, you’ll seldom are them devoted enough to keep re-visiting the same article a dozen times over the course of months. Fortunately, regardless of whether or not a user has set up their User Profile, Wikipedia does track all the edits they’ve ever made on Wikipedia on a users “Contributions” page. Lets see what Yad115 (**now going by “Smumvguhvlhwyr”) has been up to on Wikipedia:
Yad115 made their very first edit to Nick Kristof’s wiki article on June 7, a little more than a month before word got out about Kristof’s gubernatorial ambitions, and seems to be quite interested in the Kristof-WuDunn’s affairs; heavily editing the Wikipedia articles of Nick, Sheryl WuDunn (Nick’s wife), and Kristof Farms - the vacation farm-home Kristof pays his daughter to manage and “Results Partners”, a vineyard development and management firm, to run. Yad115 also created the article for the “Election Law Clinic'', a Harvard-associated legal clinic specializing in, unsurprisingly, election law. More on that last bit later.
(Segments from the “Our Team” page on the Kristof Farms website)
Taking a closer look at some of these edits, a pattern emerges pretty quickly; Yad115 is keenly interested in revising almost anything related to the residence of Mr. Kristoff and Mrs. WuDunn. Their very first edit Yad115 made to Kristof’s wiki article, and Yad115’s very first ever edit made to Wikipedia, on June 7th 2021, was to update the “See also” section at the bottom of Kristof’s wiki article. Where it once linked to an aggregate wiki page titled “New Yorkers in journalism”, it was updated to now link to a separate aggregate page titled “List of people from Oregon”.
Interesting note to start ones’ Wikipedia editing career on, but innocuous enough on its own, sure. Let's check Yad115’s second ever Wikipedia edit, made a couple hours later, an edit to the aforementioned aggregate Wikipedia page “New Yorkers in Journalism”, removing Mr. Kristof from that aggregate page. Third edit, removing “Business people from New York City” and “Writers from New York City” from Sheryl WuDunn’s related category list on her Wikipedia article.
Yad115’s interest in where the Kristof-WuDunn family resides doesnt end there, though it does branch out into other interestes in how the family, particularly Kristof himself, are perceived. Of particular interest, a revisionist re-telling of Kristof’s views on the Iraq war based on a summary of a series of articles he wrote on the topic in the early oughts. Carefully trimming, deleting, and rewording a rather glowing, optimistic interest in the possibility of overthrowing Saddam and establishing a good, neo-Colonial American democracy in Iraq and leaving in its place a much more subdued, cherry-picked selection of quotes that portray a much more nuanced reservation regarding the topic.
Yad115 also made sure to remove a snippet quoting a July 2021 article from WIllamette Week that noted that the Yamhill county elections clerk confirmed Kristoff had registered as a Democrat in Oregon in December of 2020.
…
Most recently, on January 7th, right as Kristof’s residency debacle reached its fever pitch, Yad115 made a last ditch effort to cite an October 2019 Oregonian article about the change in crop choice at Kristof’s Yamhill vacation farm-home erroneously imply that Kristof has been living in Yamhill since 2019. The article talks at length about the farm and, interestingly enough, Kristof is quite open about his minimal involvement in its day-to-day, on-the-ground operations, and how difficult he finds to to be involved while not residing at the property, the article poses the question:
Will WuDunn and Kristof be making their own cider and wine?
To which, Kristof is quoted as responding:
"Trust me, we know our limitations,” Kristof said. “Sheryl and I do not know how to make quality cider and pinot noir. We plan to partner with a local cidery and winery."Making the transition has not been easy. "Results Partners has been great with the vineyard preparation, but it has been a challenge to manage all of this while living 3,000 miles away,” Kristof said.
After attempting to use this article as a source to prove Kristof’s residency in Yamhill, another Wikipedia editor kindly suggests that Yad115 actually read the article, in which Kristof admits to his remote involvement in the farm, from 3000 miles away.
(Yad115 adding the snippet attempting to cite the Oregonian article as a source for his residency in Yamhill)
(Another Wiki editor pointing out the article states that Kristof is residing 3000 miles away)
At this point, it hardly feels like a stretch to suggest that, perhaps, Yad115 is someone in Kristof’s close orbit, trying to build a more favorable narrative about Kristof on Wikipedia. But is there any way to figure out who Yad115 is? Well, perhaps.
Let’s revisit the one non-Kristof related article Yad115 has been editing on Wikipedia, the Election Law Clinic. At first, this seemed to be an indication that one of Kristof’s legal team was the mysterious Yad115 - fitting for the type as well, is it not? Wordsmithing, citations, and all the song and dance that goes into editing Wikipedia articles; seems right up a lawyers alley. Perhaps one of the members of the ELC has the initials Y.A.D., or maybe Yad is even their first name? No dice, their “Team” page lists: Ruth Greenwood, Adam Harper, Daniel Hessel, and Theresa J. Lee, no “Y.A.D.” or “Yad” to be found. But, one name does ring a bell. Adam Harper. A discerning reader might recall that name from earlier in this write-up, on the Kristof Farm “Our Team” page.
(Mr. Harper’s bio on the ELC Team page)
(Mr. Harper’s bio on the Kristof Farms page)
Interesting through line. Also interesting, the nickname Mr. Harper is ‘affectionately known as’ is the Mandarin phonetic for his first name, “Adam”, or “Yà dāng”, and also establishes that he seems to be the resident tech export for the Kristof-WuDunn family, who just so happens to have someone deftly updating their Wikipedia articles to tell the most compelling, Oregon-centric story one could possibly weave from the yarn of Kristof’s life.
An Opinionated Conclusion
It is, admittedly, a stretch to consider this loose association a certain connection - certainly this evidence would hardly be ample to convict for the crime of crafting a misleading Wikipedia article were this the court of law. But the ‘who’ in this story, in this writer's opinion, is not the main point - the main point is: a ‘Democratic’ gubernatorial hopeful felt it appropriate to build a dis-information campaign to help fluff their profile and manufacture support, knowing that a not insignificant number of people (this writer included) would turn to Wikipedia in the hopes of finding an impartial, nuanced background on him (and an important reminder to check sources and edits on Wikipedia).
An aspiring political hopeful editing their Wikipedia article to tell a more flattering story that fits their narrative is hardly even a blip on the fringes of today’s political radar. In the era of an increasingly rapid American decline towards fascism, an glaringly obvious failure of any political party or body to provide anything close to effective management of the pandemic, rampant inequity, the list goes on - but is this behavior really the scraps we should be settling for? This type of behavior, it feels safe to suggest, is indefensible. Would anyone really look favorably at a political candidate they knew was purposefully crafting a purposefully misleading narrative for themselves? Is it on the same spectrum as attempting to overthrow the government or being photographed with Epstein and Maxwell for 20 years? Hardly. Should we really let that desensitization assuage us into accepting a candidate who, well, “at least they aren't Trump”?
Update 1/13/22
It would seem this article did catch the attention of someone at Kristof HQ, as they have since removed the mention of the Election Law Clinic from Mr. Harpers bio on the Kristof Farms website, though he is still listed on the ELC website, and lists it on his LinkedIn as well. Additionally, Mr. Harper set his Twitter account to Private after I first posted this story on Twitter, where it used to be public. The mysterious Yad115 seems to have tried to figure out how to delete some of their own info off Wikipedia.
(how Harper’s bio reads on the Kristof Farms website now)
(how Harper’s bio read on the Kristof Farms website before I posted this article)