[WikiEN-l] Why trivia and popular culture items need sources

[Ray Saintonge]

Daniel P. B. Smith wrote:

>An editor took strong exception to my request for sources for  
>"popular culture" items in the article on the Statue of Liberty. One  
>of these items was:
>
>"The New York Liberty, New York's professional women's basketball  
>team, has the Statue of Liberty as their mascot."
>
>The editor said: "The fact that the NY Liberty b-ball team uses the  
>SoL as its mascot does NOT need an outside citation, for Pete's sake."
>
>I replied that if it was all that obvious it shouldn't be that hard  
>to paste in a link from the team's website. Since I try to play fair,  
>I proceeded to go to the team's website myself to get the link.
>
>Well, whaddaya know.
>
>The team's mascot is, in fact, NOT the Statue of Liberty, but a dog  
>named Maddie, for Madison Square Garden.
>
This urban myth was quite harmless, but the story proves a point that 
what people honestly believe may not always be true.  Harmless comments 
are more quickly left unchallenged, but you can never be too safe.

Ec