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.