[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] Board statement regarding biographies of l...

[David Gerard]

2009/4/22  <WJhonson at aol.com>:
> In a message dated 4/22/2009 11:31:48 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> arromdee at rahul.net writes:

>> But if you're going to go that route, that means that once you have
>> verified
>> their identity, you should indeed let them fix the incorrect claim in
>> their
>> biography.
>> That's not what you're saying.  You're arguing for a policy that says that
>> someone without a source can't correct errors about himself *at
>> all*--whether
>> you looked up the official site for his radio station or not.  Verifying
>> his
>> identity is, in fact, completely irrelevant to this policy.>>

> The sole place where the subject may have a special position, is in
> providing a response to a well-sourced negative statement.  If we have a statement
> like "Britney Spears stabbed her husband and was arrested" (L.A. Times, 12
> Oct 2007), then she is quite welcome to provide an alternate version such as
> "she stabbed him, but it was with a nail file and the skin wasn't even
> broken, he's just a big cry baby bitch." (Britneyspears.com, "Why I was arrested
> last week")
> However, this does not mean that we remove the L A Times reference.  That
> would be whitewashing the article.  We are here to provide the reading public
> with the most consistent, neutral, inclusive view of pop culture.  That
> isn't simply the glamour magazines, it has to include as well the news articles
> that have negative material.


I think at this point you're arguing past each other. Neither of you
actually works to the ridiculously extreme straw-man standards you
ascribe to each other.

WP:BLP may be summarised as "we're here to write an encyclopedia, but
have to be very careful not to be dicks about it."


- d.