On 3/3/06, charles matthews <charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com> wrote:
A couple of combative columnists, [[Johann Hari]] and
[[Mark Steyn]].
I'll take Johann Hari first, since the issues are entry-level.
User:81.157.14.152 thought that his secondary schooling was not verifiable,
and cut it out (20 February); no edit summary, let alone discussion. One of
the schools in question is [[John Lyon School]]. The information that Hari
went there was added on 17 February by User:Epitome1, who had the same day
edited the page, [[John Lyon School]]. And then immediately gone on to add
the fat that Hari was an alumnus.
Reasonable presumption would take it that User:Epitome1 has a close enough
connection to John Lyon School; perhaps even was a pupil there with Hari, or
teaches there. Nothing to raise the slightest suspicion, anyway.
So User:81.157.14.152 cuts out this and another school. Objections from
User:Felix-felix, who puts it back in. Talk page discussion:
User:81.157.14.152 emails Hari to check, and comes back satisfied on the
John Lyon School, at least.
But under [[Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons]], of course, we cannot
accept this information, on the basis of a supposed email exchange.
Correct. Wikipedia editors are not journalists and have no access to
the kind of fact-checking process that reporters have. This is why we
publish only what reliable sources have already published.
However, even though the e-mail exchange is not acceptable as a
source, there is likely to be some other way of obtaining the
information e.g. from a school magazine or local newspaper. It'll just
require a bit of extra digging.
Sarah