First, I've read criticisms of wikipedia since I first started posting, too many years ago. And I agree with them.

I nonetheless find wikipedia invaluable for an overview and for undisputed facts, like where someone attended school and when, or who someone's parents are or were (undisputed more often than not). It also provides footnotes that you can check. I use it as a starting point, then research anything that smells of opinion, controversy, intentional omission of salient info, etc.

BTW, it most useful for that purpose before someone announces for President or Vice President, when the wiki gets scrubbed. For example, I watched Sarah Palin's change any number of times, right after McCain named her as his running mate. (Sometimes, you have to read between the lines for things unsaid. For example, from which of the several colleges she attended, if any, was Palin graduated?)

Whether or not wikipedia is your starting point, I am always astounded me how many who spend a chunk of their time posting about a politician do not know the most basic of facts about their favorite--or most hated--pol. Facts that are available on the internet, if one bothers to search.

For example, when Elizabeth Warren first ran for US Senator from blue, blue Massachusetts, some of her biggest cheerleaders did not know that she had spent most of her political career, not as a "progressive" but as a conservative Republican, some say a harsh one. (Unsaid, although one can put it together, she changed parties after Bill Clinton hired her for her first government job. He may have required that--he required Timothy Geitner to change, but Geitner went only from Republican to indie....until Obama.)

Another example: Some Beto fans were not aware that he had been charged with breaking and entering and, much later, with DUI. Also, when asked if he had traded on inside info, his response was, "I guess so." And he tried to join the House's Hispanic caucus(!), but was refused. (A good bit of that was deleted during his Presidential campaign.)

It doesn't need to be wikipedia, even though that is my preferred starting point. However, if you have not read a pol's full history somewhere, I urge you to do so, preferably before you post praising or rejecting and certainly before you give him or her your Presidential vote. Parents, place of birth, education, work history and all. It may be nothing like what you think you know.