[WikiEN-l] BLPs: Wikipedia entry nearly scuppers rugby player's career

[Andrew Gray]

2008/10/1 David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com>:

>> The Johnson and Johnson family is well-known for being wealthy, but they  are
>> also well-known for having one of the largest will-contests in  history.
>> I'm sure we wouldn't want to advocate hiding information that is already
>> well-known among those who know anything about it in the first place.
>
> Well, no. If a scandal was clearly noteworthy, it's clearly
> noteworthy. BLP really kicks in for the minorly notable.

Quite. No-one seriously advocates using BLP to argue, say, that we
shouldn't mention Prince Charles or Paul McCartney got divorced, and
that it was a bit embarrassing for all concerned[1]. Arguing against
using it in general cases of less remarkable people, however, with
"but what if it's notable! what if it's famous!" is a bit of a red
herring, because it almost always *isn't*.

We keep falling back into this trap every time we discuss BLP...

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk

[1] I have been trying to think of a more high-profile divorce case,
and I'm damned if I can...