[Foundation-l] Subject: Re: The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia, (from the Chronicle) + some citation discussions

[Fred Bauder]

> On 24 February 2012 09:34, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
>
>> On 02/22/12 6:04 PM, David Goodman wrote:
>>
>>> There are many subjects in which there would be multiple schools of
>>> thought with little agreement; anyone following book reviews in the
>>> humanities or social sciences or even some of the sciences would know
>>> the intensity with which the highest level scholars attack the work of
>>> those they disagree with. Appoint one as expert, and that field will
>>> have a substantial bias. Appoint several, and they will endlessly
>>> dispute with each other.
>>>
>>
>> We shouldn't expect ourselves to be exempt from this kind of academic
>> discourse. We owe it to our readers to provide a clear and fair-minded
>> presentation of these differences.
>>
>>
> Isn't that what David is saying? That if we allowed partisans to hold
> sway
> by virtue of their expertise in the subject we are not going to get a
> fair
> minded presentation (either a one-sided one, or a major argument if two
> or
> more experts clash).
>
> By introduction lay editors with no specific interest or investment,
> except
> in writing a good article, we moderate this issue (not entirely, but
> there
> you go).
>
> Tom

Still original research. And even worse, not interesting. A cleaned up
version that omits the research of those who are passionate about the
subject would pretty much be a bucket of warm spit.

Although I don't think we need to consider Howard Zinn an expert on
anything but his own birthday. Footnote 49 from Haymarket affair:

"Some anarchists privately indicated they had later learned the bomber's
identity but kept quiet to avoid further prosecutions. Howard Zinn, in A
People's History of the United States suggests Rudolph Schnaubelt was an
agent of the police posing as an anarchist and threw the bomb (thus
giving police a pretext to arrest the leaders of Chicago's anarchist
movement.) This theory does not have wide support among historians."

Hardly surprising; as far as I can see, he just made it up.

Fred