[WikiEN-l] An example of a bad biography

[Jimmy Wales]

WJhonson at aol.com wrote:
> Saying that things in BLPs "hurts people" only furthers the idea that that  
> is what we're avoiding.  It's a simplistic approach to a complex  issue.
>  
> Things that we re-report, summarize, etc in BLP's is sometimes going to  hurt 
> people.  We've been over this ground before.  Not only people who  do stupid 
> things (like murder, rape, etc.), but people who are mentioned  nationally 
> doing embarrassing things as well.
>  
> Our mission is not to protect people from themselves.  That is *their*  
> mission.
> Our mission is to rely on reliable, verifiable sources to tell the public  
> what *is* going on.

This entirely misses the point of what I was talking about.  I am sorry 
but I am at a bit of a loss at the moment as to how to explain it to you.

The victim of the bad biography in this case did nothing to deserve the 
insults that were flung at him by the vandals.  I am not suggesting that 
we hide embarrassing things done by various people, not report honestly 
on murder cases, etc.  All of that has absolutely nothing to do with 
what we are discussing here.

--Jimbo