Philip Cross

Philip Cross (Wikipedia editor)
"Philip Cross" the work of one, or many?
Interests	• George Galloway • Neil Clark • Craig Murray • Media Lens • Gilad Atzmon • Tim Hayward • Piers Robinson • The Canary • 9/11 Citizens Watch
A Wikipedia username that has been used every day for several years, sparking the suggestion that he may be a pseudonym for use by multiple paid editors.

"Philip Cross" is the name of a Wikipedia editor active since 2005 whose edits attracted controversy in May 2018. His attention to particular prominent pages is extreme; he has made the majority of the edits to the Wikipedia on Media Lens, made around 1700 edit to the page of George Galloway, and over 130,000 edits in total.

Own Words

The user page of "Philip Cross" describes him as a jazz and drama enthusiast. He is also a controversial Wikipedia user and editor who dedicates considerable effort to editing the Wikipedia pages of well-known British anti-establishment journalists, bloggers, authors and academics

Pseudonym?

“My view is that Philip Cross probably is a real person, but that he fronts for a group acting under his name. It is undeniably true, in fact the government has boasted, that both the MOD and GCHQ have “cyber-war” ops aiming to defend the “official” narrative against alternative news media, and that is precisely the purpose of the “Philip Cross” operation on Wikipedia. The extreme regularity of output argues against “Philip Cross” being either a one man or volunteer operation. I do not rule out however the possibility he genuinely is just a single extremely obsessed right wing fanatic.”
Craig Murray (21 May 2018) 

Cross’ edits in relation to the above parties are generally disparaging, however, the quantity and frequency of the edits suggest that “Philip Cross” may be a pseudonym for a group of like-minded individuals acting in concert.

Edits

The regularity of the edits by "Philip Cross" is remarkable, from which Craig Murray inferred that if he is a single individual, he is an obsessive Wikipedia editor without much in the way of other personal commitments.

Craig Murray, whose Wikipedia page has been repeated edited by Cross remarked that "the purpose of the “Philip Cross” operation is systematically to attack and undermine the reputations of those who are prominent in challenging the dominant corporate and state media narrative. particularly in foreign affairs. “Philip Cross” also systematically seeks to burnish the reputations of mainstream media journalists and other figures who are particularly prominent in pushing neo-con propaganda and in promoting the interests of Israel." Edit references are provided below:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Craig_Murray&action=history

• https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Pilger&offset=20170512174605&action=history

• https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Media_Lens&action=history

• https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Galloway&offset=20180114204444&action=history

• https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gilad_Atzmon&action=history

• https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tim_Hayward_(academic)&action=history

• https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Piers_Robinson&action=history

In January 2019 Cross edited the article on 9/11 Citizens Watch before it was removed as being "not notable".

On 3 August 2019, a week before his sudden death, "Philip Cross" edited Jeffrey Epsetin's Wikipedia page.

Twitter

Craig Murray notes that although the "Philip Cross" Twitter account has only about 200 or so followers (as opposed to the 40,000+ that he has, there are nevertheless more prominent figures such as James LeMesurier or Tristram Hunt. In particular, he notes a large number of editors of corporate newspapers, including: Oliver Kamm (Leader Writer The Times), Nick Cohen (Columnist The Guardian/Observer), Joan Smith, Columnist The Independent'), Leslie Felperin (Film Columnist The Guardian), Kate Connolly Foreign Correspondent The Guardian/Observer, Lisa O'Carroll (Brexit Correspondent The Guardian), James Bloodorth (Columnist The Independent), Cristina Criddle (BBC Radio 4 Today Programme), Sarah Baxter (Deputy Editor The Sunday Times), Iain Watson (BBC Political Correspondent), Caroline Wheeler (Deputy Political Editor the Sunday Times), Jennifer Chevalier (CBC ex-BBC) and Dani Garavelli (Scotland on Sunday)

Corporate Media

On 24 May 2018, Craig Murray tweeted:

Israeli newspaper Haaretz publishes lengthy defence of what they call "pro-Israel" Philip Cross. Strangely the author (Omer Benjakob) forgets to mention he is one of the inexplicable army of MSM hacks who were "Philip Cross" twitter followers.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Bloggers Under Siege - Craig Murray Charged with Contempt of Court	blog post	27 April 2020	Ludwig De Braeckeleer	From Lockerbie to the Russia Hoax, Craig Murray has of course upset people in high-places, including some who work for Intelligence Agencies.
Document:Narrative Managers In Overdrive After Death Of White Helmets Founder	blog post	12 November 2019	Caitlin Johnstone	There is an immense narrative management campaign dedicated to controlling what people think about what’s happening in Syria. Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Official Narrative control comes before any other priority the empire might have: before resources, before land, before even war itself. It’s up to us to see through their lies and bring an end to the lie factory.
Document:Wikipedia & the Spooks – The Remake	blog post	22 May 2018	Ludwig De Braeckeleer	In a video interview with George Galloway, journalist Neil Clark explains that "SlimVirgin" is back and teaming up with "Philip Cross". That is subtle or what?

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