[WikiEN-l] oopsie-- mainstream journalists trust Wikipedia again

[Thomas Dalton]

On 05/10/2007, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
> Andrew Gray wrote:
> > I've said it before, and I'll say it again - a good Wikipedia
> > biography of a living person should, basically, be a draft obituary.
> > Neutral tending to slightly sympathetic*,
>
> No, no asterisk, no "slightly" non-neutral. Just plain neutral, it's one
> of our foundation policies and not really negotiable. Obituaries turn
> into hagiographies far too often.

Perfection is an unattainable goal. That doesn't mean we shouldn't
strive for it, but we do need to be realistic. No article is ever
going to be 100% neutral, it's impossible. If we accept that our
articles are going to have a slight bias to them, it is entirely
appropriate that we ensure that that bias is in favour of people we're
writing about.