On Wed, 2003-04-09 at 13:50, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
Even if there is some background information in the article itself, linking to news reports legitimizes them as a source of information, when for the most part all news reports are entertainment.
That's an interesting assertion. Especially considering that pretty much all the Wikipedia entries on current events rely on news reports for the informational content.
It's certainly true that primary sources are preferable, but we need to be realistic.
Finally, the concept that a Wikipedia entry linking to newspaper articles legitimizes the articles as sources of information presupposes an authoritative legitimacy of the Wikipedia entry itself, which one would think would be based on a consideration of the legitimacy of its sources, which are the samesaid newspaper articles.