[WikiEN-l] BLP, medical information, and media controversy

[Ray Saintonge]

geni wrote:
> 2009/9/21 Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com>:
>   
>> Among issues difficult to resolve while respecting the limitations of
>> the BLP policy, enter the article about a world-class athlete whose
>> gender has recently been questioned. The problem is this: can the
>> article discuss the supposed results of the tests and its
>> implications, as widely reported, without violating the BLP policy?
>> The information is clearly personal and very sensitive, and the
>> official results have not yet been released (and they may not be). In
>> normal circumstances, that would argue strongly against including
>> speculation. The perverse effect in this case, though, is that details
>> that have become common knowledge are entirely missing from our
>> article.
>>     
> The case in question is a fairly easy one. The media speculation is
> based on a report from a single newspaper and it's somewhat
> questionable if that paper's source is as solid as they claim. We
> wait.
>
>
>   
It's easy to be dismissive by claiming that the question is an easy 
one.  The controversy itself is an issue, in addition to the underlying 
ambiguity of the athlete's gender.  Your claim that the story is based 
on a report from a single newspaper should itself be subject to 
verification. Similarly, questioning a newspaper's sources also needs to 
be subject to verification. Substituting a perceived bias about an 
individual with your bias about a newspaper is no solution.

Ec