[WikiEN-l] [[Fallujah]]

[Ray Saintonge]

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>Samuel Kennedy wrote:
>
>>So, I can't help but wonder, *is* Bomis somehow associated with the
>>United States Marine Corps?
>>
>
>Not in any way at all that I can think of, no.
>
>The accusation seems to run as follows...
>
>Jerk Sauce, which is a blog written by Tim Shell, who manages the
>content of Bomis, links to the blogs Command Post and Tim Blair.
>Those blogs, in turn, run advertisements from the blogsads.com
>syndication agency.  One advertiser for blogads.com is Spirit of
>America.  
>
>Spirit of America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which raises
>money which is used to assist members of the military channel goods to
>help local people where they are serving.  A typical example would be
>baseball and school supplies for a village in Iraq.
>
Baseball in Iraq????

>I fail to see how this set of facts could possibly warrant any sort of
>disclaimer.  Bomis hosts a blog which links to other blogs, which run
>ads for a charity, which assists members of the military.  Even if the
>Bomis blog itself directly raised money for the military, which it
>absolutely does not, even then no disclosure would be warranted on the
>article.
>
>My own philosophical and political convictions are well-known.  Many
>Wikipedians will disagree with me on political issues, but no rational
>person could conclude that I have in any way sought to impose my POV
>on the Wikipedia in anyway.  Indeed, one of the reasons that I so
>seldom edit is precisely to eliminate even any appearance of
>impropriety in that regard.
>
Speaking from the left, I've always respected the effort that Jimbo has 
made to avoid being drawn into these edit conflicts.  Without that the 
entire project would have deteriorated into chaos a long time ago..

I haven't tooked at the Fallujah article, though it is probably already 
getting more than its share of attention.  Trying to rein in highly POV 
positions across a broad range of articles, and a broad range of issues 
is ultimately a non-productive endeavour.  I've chosen to limit that 
kind of activity to a few articles of my own selection; that's as much 
high blood pressure as I can take.  There is always plenty of work to be 
done in less conflicted topics.

The difficulty with Jimbo editing articles is not with his opinions, but 
the gospel-like quality that some Wikipedians tend to attach to them.

Ec