Something to Do

For those who are looking for something to do over the holidays, and aren't inclined towards the perennial favorite, jigsaw puzzles, I have a suggestion.

The Wikipedia entry for Pennsylvania State Rep. Mark Cohen (D-202) has been tagged as:

This article or section is written like an advertisement.
Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view.

I am sure that Rep. Cohen would appreciate any assistance in making the entry more acceptable to Wikipedia standards. It is in his favor that he has so many ardent supporters willing to write such glowing things that the entry was tagged. Please keep in mind that anyone can sign up and post to Wikipedia. [updated: you can, within the wikipedia entry, view edits to the entry and see discussion among those doing the editing. In this case, it looks like a few people have done most of the editing.]

It has already had a little work done. I'm not sure what the copyright regulations are on Wikipedia but I have included some lengthy excerpts for demonstration purposes. The 12/12/07 edit is what is currently available as the cached copy and I am comparing it to the current 12/17/07 edit. For example the 12/12 entry has a long description of his online involvement:

Cohen is the most active Daily Kos diarist and commenter among elective officials who write in their own names. He is also the most active phillyblog thread starter, leader of threaded discussion and poster among elective officials who write in their own names. He is a strong believer and active participant in citizen journalism. He is an active member of Facebook. He is the prime sponsor in the Pennsylvania House of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. He has been a strong supporter of state regulation of lobbying and campaign finance and has worked successfully to make voter registration easier for voters. He has initiated the ongoing efforts to establish a state university in Philadelphia, and to appropriate state funds for MRSA superbug research.

"Call Him Rep. Blog," a front page profile of Cohen by reporter Lauren Fritsky that appeared in the August 2, 2007 issue of the Northeast Times, said he "seems to be steering the bandwagon of cyberpolitics... reinventing himself as he pioneers a new form of constituent service."

In the same issue, the Northeast Times published an editorial stating that "Mr. Cohen is perhaps the best known participant on Phillyblog and he deserves lots of credit for having the intestinal fortitude to state his opinions in the open for all to see.... Thanks to the ability of politicians like Mr. Cohen to speak out via the Internet, chatrooms, blogs, etc. the public can get the transparency it so richly deserves."

Said the August 1, 2007 Frankford Gazette about the Northeast Times article, "If you follow phillyblog at all, you may have seen posts by Cohen. The surprising thing about finding him posting there is that it is so atypical for a pol to say what he thinks out there in a public forum knowing it will be impossible for him to deny it later. Agree with him or not but we need more like him who are willing to say what they think and take part in an exchange of ideas."

Cohen's engagement with both online and traditional media is shown in his list of Facebook friends.

A long list of friends followed. That section has now been reduced to one sentence in the 12/17/07 edit.

He is an active member of Facebook, Daily Kos, and phillyblog.

This section from the 12/12/07 edit has been deleted entirely in the 12/17/07 edit:

Cohen is an active reviewer of nonfiction books for amazon.com.[3], with a reviewer rank in the top 2% of all volunteer amazon.com reviewers. Commenting on his customer review ("How Bentonville Surpassed Wall Street and Washington") of The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works -- and How It's Transforming the American Economy, William Wellisch said on September 1, 2007 "This is an outstanding review. It is detailed, objective, filled with relevant extracts to make the point. This is how book reviews should be written."

The "Praise from Advocates" section has also been deleted.

The criticism section is rather interesting. Here it is in full, as of the 12/17/07 edit:

Mario Cattabiani, the Harrisburg reporter of Philadelphia Inquirer, who was censured in the Columbia Journalism Review[5], pointed out that Cohen had billed his state legislative expense account for $28,200 in the prior two years for books and $3,050 for magazine and newspaper subscriptions. [6]

Cohen was also found by Cattabiani to have collected over $46,000 in per diem payments over two years, the third highest among all legislators, despite the fact that he owns a home in Harrisburg with no remaining mortgage and incurred no hotel costs. Cohen noted that he incurs numerous other costs, including taxes, home repairs, and maintenance. [7]

Cohen was the only vote among the members of the Speaker's Commission on Legislative Reform against a proposal to allow electronic access to all legislative expense account records.[8] Cohen said he feared that the expenses would become gossip fodder for the press, but voted for the final version of the Commission recommendations at a Commission meeting and on the House floor. Cohen also voted against a study of a Constitutional Convention proposed by Rep. Dwight Evans and supported by Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the reform commission, Rep. Josh Shapiro. [9][10] Cohen has critiqued some media in kind for focus on legislators' salary and employee benefits while generally ignoring of important public policy issues.

Democracy Rising PA, an advocacy group run by retired Democratic staffer Tim Potts, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, published a 2007 study, released July 12, 2007, rating legislative independence from House and Senate floorleaders. Rep. Cohen was rated on the Microsoft Excel spreadsheets enclosed with the study as voting with Democratic leader Bill DeWeese 220 out of 232 times, voting with DeWeese more times than 61% of the House Democratic Caucus; he has long been part of Democratic leadership as an elected caucus leader since January, 1990. [11]

Here is the longer 12/12 criticism section:

Cohen has been questioned by reporters in the local media for what they claim is dubious spending. Cohen has responded that the questions are on his strong work ethic of spending many extra days in Harrisburg and doing research on many issues to be an active leader on them.8 "I'm a very hard worker," Cohen said. "I do a lot of paperwork in the office. I take this job extremely seriously."8

Mario Cattabiani, the Harrisburg reporter of Philadelphia Inquirer, who was censured in the Columbia Journalism Review[9], pointed out that Cohen had billed his state legislative expense account for $28,200 in the prior two years for books and $3,050 for magazine and newspaper subscriptions. Cattabiani's article did not note Cohen's strong career advocacy for the Philadelphia school district. Cohen's book total was more than some individual schools in cash-starved Philadelphia School District had spent for library books in the same period, during which time period library resources were being heavily spent on internet and computer literacy. [10]

Cohen--a strong supporter of aid to libraries who has obtained numerous grants for school libraries and public libraries within and near his legislative district--replied that he was a "voracious reader" and felt that the books did help him become a more effective legislator. Indeed, the non-fiction books he purchased were generally scholarly titles and policy works including Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America and Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival. However, other books he purchased with taxpayer funds included AOL for Dummies and The Zen of Gambling. The latter was purchased at the time the legislature was considering legalizing slot machines and other forms of legalized gambling. [11]

Cohen was also found by Cattabiani to have collected over $46,000 in per diem payments over two years, the third highest among all legislators, despite the fact that he owns a home in Harrisburg with no remaining mortgage and incurred no hotel costs. Cohen noted that he incurs numerous other costs, including taxes, home repairs, and maintenance. [12]

In a column for the Philadelphia Daily News, John Baer, a former staff member for Republican Lieutenant Governor William Scranton III, noted that Cohen was the only vote among the members of the Speaker's Commission on Legislative Reform against a proposal to allow electronic access to all legislative expense account records.[13] Cohen said he feared that the expenses would become gossip fodder for the press, but voted for the final version of the Commission recommendations at a Commission meeting and on the House floor. Baer, a self-proclaimed " professional cynic" (Philadelphia Daily News, November 5, 2007), noted that Cohen also voted against a study of a Constitutional Convention proposed by Rep. Dwight Evans and supported by Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the reform commission, Rep. Josh Shapiro. Baer did not note that the study was opposed by Pa Cleansweep leader Russ Diamond and many members of the reform commission and was not a proposal of the reform commission. Baer did quote Shapiro as saying "it may be too premature" to have a constitutional convention. [14][15]

Cohen has critiqued some media in kind for focus on legislators' salary and employee benefits while generally ignoring of important public policy issues. "I think, 10 years from now, the newspaper coverage in Pennsylvania will be taught in journalism schools as a model of abuse. This is propaganda not news (covered with objectivity). The old leaders of the Soviet Union would be very proud of Pennsylvania newspapers' coverage of this issue."

Cohen is the only member of the General Assembly identified by Mario Cattabiani as billing his expenses for the Pennsylvania Society's annual meeting back to his legislative expense account. Cohen believed that as he attended no political events at or around the meeting of the non-profit, non-political organization, this would be a legitimate use of legislative expense money. The Philadelphia Board of Ethics, in a 2004 decision discussing Pennsylvania Society attendance in conjunction with the City of Philadelphia's ethical code, called the Pennsylvania Society annual New York dinner an "official function." In addition, many private sector lobbyists and local government officials are reimbursed for the their expenses at Pennsylvania Society meetings and Cohen saw so reason that legislators cannot do the same at meetings in which state legislation and state policies are frequently discussed.[16][17]

Democracy Rising PA, an advocacy group run by retired Democratic staffer Tim Potts, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, published a 2007 study, released July 12, 2007, rating legislative independence from House and Senate floorleaders. Rep. Cohen was rated on the Microsoft Excel spreadsheets enclosed with the study as voting with Democratic leader Bill DeWeese 220 out of 232 times, voting with DeWeese more times than 61% of the House Democratic Caucus; he has long been part of Democratic leadership as an elected caucus leader since January, 1990. [18]

I didn't include the footnotes. There were 18 in the 12/12 edit and 11 in the 12/17 edit. It should be noted that it was the Inquirer and not Cattabiani himself who was given a "dart" (as opposed to a laurel) by the Columbia Journalism Review, although some of the stories referenced were written by Cattabiani; all dealt with coverage of state Rep. Daylin Leach's leachvent blog and had nothing to do with Cohen.

Even so, it looks like the entry could still use a little work. If you can post to Wikipedia you might stop by and do a little editing.