[WikiEN-l] [Fwd: Re: The hard work of NPOV]

[Fred Bauder]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The hard work of NPOV
From: "Fred Bauder" <fredbaud at fairpoint.net>
Date: Thu, December 6, 2007 12:15 pm
To: <dgoodmanny at gmail.com>

I was in an evil mood and confess to trolling; there are a lot of good
thoughts at http://yudkowsky.net/virtues/ besides the sentence I seized
on. We have published a "consensus of the most widespread error" from
time to time, particularly in the run-up to the Iraq War. (I was one of
the parties in error). Especially with current events, it is hard to
know when you are doing that as our favored sources, in my case The New
York Times, are fostering the error.

It would be interesting to go back and look at the development of those
articles and see how much "air time" we gave to the view that there were
no weapons on mass destruction. Some modesty is in order. Even some
intelligence services were taken in. We can aspire to do better then
they, but without good sources on the ground, and willingness to use
what they might tell us, which is their failing too, we cannot expect to
surpass them.

Fred

> perhaps we should redefine it our goal, as the nearest practical
> approach to truth the wiki process can obtain, obtained at in a spirit
> of impartiality. That's what people reasonably expect from us, not a
> consensus of the most widespread error.
>
>
>
> On Dec 6, 2007 9:17 AM, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>
>> > http://yudkowsky.net/virtues/
>> >
>> > Please discuss.
>> >
>> >
>> > - d.
>>
>> "If you fail to achieve a correct answer, it is futile to protest
>> that you acted with propriety."
>>
>> NPOV is a measure of propriety, not of truth.
>>
>> Fred
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.