[WikiEN-l] Verifiability - Case Study I

[charles matthews]

A  couple of combative columnists, [[Johann Hari]] and [[Mark Steyn]].



I'll take Johann Hari first, since the issues are entry-level.



User:81.157.14.152 thought that his secondary schooling was not verifiable, 
and cut it out (20 February); no edit summary, let alone discussion.  One of 
the schools in question is [[John Lyon School]]. The information that Hari 
went there was added on 17 February by User:Epitome1, who had the same day 
edited the page, [[John Lyon School]]. And then immediately gone on to add 
the fat that Hari was an alumnus.



Reasonable presumption would take it that User:Epitome1 has a close enough 
connection to John Lyon School; perhaps even was a pupil there with Hari, or 
teaches there.  Nothing to raise the slightest suspicion, anyway.



So User:81.157.14.152 cuts out this and another school.  Objections from 
User:Felix-felix, who puts it back in.  Talk page discussion: 
User:81.157.14.152 emails Hari to check, and comes back satisfied on the 
John Lyon School, at least.



But under [[Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons]], of course, we cannot 
accept this information, on the basis of a supposed email exchange.



Further, if someone actually was at school with Hari, we cannot accept that 
testimony, at least until they point to a published school list (which in 
effect displaces them as witness).



The article can get by, without the school information.  But it is not 
without interest: Hari went to Cambridge, and has had a spectacular career 
while still young, from a background which was probably too poor to be 
considered very middle class.



Charles