[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia as a primary source

[Steve Bennett]

On 3/14/07, Stan Shebs <stanshebs at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Just as we need to be known for not allowing corporations to buy slanted
> coverage, we need it to be known that celebrities can't get the slant
> they want just by asking.

De-slanting is not the same thing as a harmless correction. If we have
no source for a birthdate, and the celebrity says it's wrong, we
should just fix it. If we have no source for a mildly embarrassing
statement, and the celebrity says it's wrong, we should try and find
out one way or another ASAP. Which (iirc) is what we usually do.

So far, I'm comfortable with kowtowing to loudmouthed celebrities who
complain about their articles. I don't see that it does our cause a
great deal of good to stubbornly keep a crappy article in place when
the world's attention has just been brought to it. Better to clean it
up and make it "nice", at the expense of true NPOV, and let it drift
back to a more neutral position in the days afterwards.

Steve