Sue Reed wrote:
None of those statements is sourced in any way. And I can find at least that many similar statements in several articles on my watchlist. Can I delete all that on the spot? If it's "positive" can I mark it with [citation needed] and leave it alone?
I think we want to be careful to avoid an accidental bias towards hagiography. Mostly what I would do with such statements is try really hard to tone them down, to remove the value judgments if they seem sketchy in any way.
Unsourced negative evaluations are a real problem in bios of living persons even when they fall short of libel or other legal problems. But certainly if anyone ever reads anything negative in wikipedia and thinks "gee, if that is false, then it is probably libel" then it should be shot on sight.
--Jimbo