Reddi had added many links to [[Current events]]. Most are OK but s/he has a habit of adding highly questionable stuff -
i. adding in lines in the page that are generally seen as totally irrelevant and completely Americocentrist, eg announcing the launch of US TV show premieres and re-runs as if they were of internationally newsworthy, or could remotely fall within the ambit of current affairs, eg.,
* [[Entertainment]] : "The Partridge Family" to take the psychedelic bus for another spin, returning to television in an updated remake, according to The Hollywood Reporter. [22]
* [[Entertainment]]: The "Star Wars: Clone Wars" episodes premieres. A new episode of the Lucas-approved series airs each weeknight, repeating at midnight. Another 10 will air next spring. [4] [5]
* [[Movies]]: Russell Crowe attended the London premiere of his movie Master and Commander. [2]
** [[Nudity]]: Porn publisher Larry Flynt states he bought reported nude photos of Iraq war heroine Jessica Lynch - to keep them from ever being published. Jessica Lynch is frolicking topless with male soldiers in the photos before she went off to war. [10] [11] [12]
ii. using highly POV language, eg.,
* [[Mass media]]: An example of European media coverage distorting the Mideast conflict is publicized. [47]
* [[United Nations]]: The UN votes again and overwhelmingly for an end to sanctions against Cuba; only the USA, Israel, and the Marshall Islands vote against. [12] The US's United Nations ambassador John Negroponte avoided the UN propaganda forum.
iii. uses as /single/ sources references that are not highly regarded as NPOV, for example editorials and commentary columns and controversial sources such as FOX News.
iv. Adding in names of countries, definitions and links at the start of sentences that are at this stage OTT and in most cases wrongly defined ([[Scotland]], [[Nudity]], [[Entertainment]], etc, as if the page was a tabloid TV news channel. Mav among others have constantly had to revert these, for example:
# (cur) (last) . . M 20:39, 16 Nov 2003 . . Maveric149 (removed bastard contextualizations; place is not context! Nor is subject! ) # (cur) (last) . . 01:27, 14 Nov 2003 . . Snoyes (removing POV on news article (no place for debating on this page - it is meant to be short and to the point - see talk)) # (cur) (last) . . 23:26, 13 Nov 2003 . . Snoyes (add link to judge-story; rm official statement from other news story (official statements are frequently useless, as they mostly don't add anything)) # (cur) (last) . . M 03:22, 12 Nov 2003 . . Jiang (rm pointless contextualizations)
Snoyes wrote - Regarding my removal of, as you (user:Reddi) put it, the "pentagon view": The Current Events page should not be some kind of forum for posting points of view on News articles. It is about the News itself. I don't think that it is a good idea to post responses by involved parties if they don't contain significant relevant information that has not already been said. . . If this continues we'll be writing entire news stories pretty soon. Which I don't think Current Events is designed to do. --snoyes 01:28, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)
Jiang, Snoyes, Mav, Viajero and others have complained repeatedly about some of these additions. I raised the point of the nonsensical listing of a cartoon series. Reddi's response was to write a weird largely unreadable reply which he signed "Not an irish drunk", an offensive characture link mocking my Irishness which, if it was made against someone because of their gender, race or jewish identity would rightly be criticised.
It is not the only place on wikipedia that Reddi has acted in a POV manner, but while thankfully s/he doesn't engage in edit wars, they keep adding in links, adding in categories at the start of lines, creating ever growing right wing Americocentrist lines and using controversial sources as single sources, rather than, as requested, offer other sources alongside with their beloved FOX News and the Washington Times. And so far appeals from everyone else to stop fall on deaf ears. Have people any suggestions, before what is right now just a constant irritant on the Current events page requiring frequent culling of irrelevant stuff, as so happens grows into something worse and provokes major rows on the page?
JT
_________________________________________________________________
From the hottest toys to tips on keeping fit this winter, youll find a
range of helpful holiday info here. http://special.msn.com/network/happyholidays.armx
James-
Reddi had added many links to [[Current events]]. Most are OK but s/he has a habit of adding highly questionable stuff -
Your analysis is correct and I have had conflicts with Reddi over this in the past. He replied with an incomprehensible block of text (and also has the annoying habit of removing a comment when replying to it). On the other hand, he is/was one of the most active editors on CE, so I think we should make reasonable efforts to work with him.
Reddi has good intentions, but when it's so obvious where he stands politically from his edits, something needs to be done.
I would support an official warning to the effect that: - POV language needs to be avoided -- will everyone agree with the summary? - Sources should be reasonably objective, e.g. Voice of America is a US government funded operation, and AP/Reuters are therefore preferable - "Current events" should concentrate on factual information, not mere statements of opinion - When available, summaries should contain facts/"opinions" from all relevant sides
As for the entertainment news, I believe these *could* be salvaged, but not in the current format which has no clear distinction between different news categories. They could either be on a separate page or in a separate section. This includes sports, movies, music etc. I do support growing the "Current events" section beyond its present format, we can always spin it off if it gets too dominant.
Regards,
Erik