2025 Dao Prize – Honorable Mention

Ashley Rindsberg is a runner-up to the 2025 Dao Grand Prize and received $10,000 for his series on the Ideological Capture of Wikipedia for Pirate Wires.

Ashley Rindsberg is an American novelist, media commentator, essayist, and journalist based in Israel. Rindsberg was born in South Africa and raised in the United States. He attended Cornell University where he double majored in philosophy and science & technology studies. In 2021, Rindsberg published The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’ Misreporting, Distortions, and Fabrications Radically Alter History. The book looks at how instances of major misreporting and inaccuracies at the New York Times have had a substantial impact on international events, American and world policy, politics, and history, not only setting the agenda for the news but influencing what millions of people believe to be factual. Rindsberg says the book was a response to learning from William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that, at the outset of World War II, the New York Times reported that Poland invaded Germany.

Ashley Rindsberg is an investigative journalist and author focused on media malfeasance, information warfare, and the hidden systems influencing public discourse.

Here are Ashley’s reports:

How the Regime Captured Wikipedia, Ashley Rindsberg, August 5, 2024

How Wikipedia Launders Regime Propaganda, Ashley Rindsberg, August 29, 2024

How Wikipedia is Becoming a Massive Pay-to-Play Scheme, Ashley Rindsberg, October 7, 2024

How Wikipedia’s Pro-Hamas Editors Hijacked the Israel-Palestine Narrative, Ashley Rindsberg, October 24, 2024

Wikipedia Editors Officially Deem Trump a Fascist, Ashley Rindsberg, October 29, 2025