On Sun, 26 Oct 2008, Todd Allen wrote:
It is just beyond our means to determine if, firstly, the person claiming to be the subject really is, ...
This only make sense if we demanded that the source check to see that he's really the subject.
In the majority of cases, this is not true. The source isn't going to do any identity checking. Demanding that he get an error about himself fixed in another source is just a hoop to force him to jump through. The idea that this source will do identity checking that we don't is just a legal fiction.
Of course, if the subject is willing to post their side somewhere, such as on his or her own site...
So why don't we just let him fix the Wikipedia article, and consider the Wikipedia correction to be the subject self-publishing the correction?
(Note that I'm not asking whether this violates policy, I'm asking what good the policy does.)