Quoting Risker risker.wp@gmail.com:
On Dec 7, 2007 8:08 PM, Bryan Derksen bryan.derksen@shaw.ca wrote:
We've got a neutral news outlet that we could go to; Wikinews.
You *are* joking, right? The same Wikinews that is on Wikipedia's front page, largely developed by en-WP editors, and gets special linking rights in WP articles unlike any other news medium? Whether or not the writers of Wikinews are neutral is immaterial; I believe the conflict of interest would actually make things worse.
Risker
Speaking as a Wikipedia admin who is also a Wikinews admin(albeit the second only very recently), using Wikinews for this sort of thing is not in general a good idea. Wikinews has on occasion reported on Wikipedia related issues. For example they reported on the Webcomics wars and they actually broke the Chris Benoit Wikipedia story- http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Death_of_Nancy_Benoit_rumour_posted_on_Wikipedia... (and then got close to zero credit for it in the mainstream press) and many of the Wikinewsies actually dislike the English Wikipedia to the point where if some of them were writing I'd be worried about the article being too anti-Wikipedia. However, the potential for conflicts of interest is massive and the appearance of a serious conflict of interest would occur regardless of who wrote it there. Indeed, many Wikinewsies frown on Wikipedia related reporting for just those reasons. It is much better to do Wikinews reports about Wikipedia only as they are done now; generally when some person who is mainly a Wikinewsie finds out about some Wikipedia related matter that sparks their interest they edit about it. \
Now, what might make sense is for someone to talk to a Wikinewsie who is very much not a Wikipedian (and I have a few in mind) and talk to them about doing an essentially investigative article. However, that would take time and would further continue this drama which really should just die.