[WikiEN-l] Policies, notability et al, was Request to Wikipedians for BB...

[WJhonson at aol.com]

Steve, news articles *in general* are primary sources.

Here is how you can tell:  Is what I'm reading the first time someone has 
published what I'm reading?

"So and so was hit by a car today" -- primary source, first time published.

Secondary sources collate multiple primary sources, any multiple primary 
sources.  When a source uses some primary and some secondary sources, I 
personally would still call that secondary.
"Marion Davies claimed in tape interviews that she was born in 1905, but a 
search of relevant public records indicates she was born in 1897".


HOWEVER, when we had the discussion years ago about what a "tertiary" 
source should be in Wiki-speak, we almost always only referred to encyclopedias 
and their ilk, which collate multiple secondary sources.  It's hard to come 
up with another example of what a tertiary source would be, and I personally 
don't like the term, but there you go.

Will Johnson