[WikiEN-l] Tabloid sources (was Wikipedia leadership})

[Andreas Kolbe]

> > We have a policy about not spreading gossip, but I see
> little evidence
> > that
> > we adhere to it.
> >
> > Andreas
> 
> After such examples are found they still need to be edited.
> The editing
> community varies in its tolerance, experience, and
> compliance. What in
> one context might slip though will not in another. BLP is
> an area of
> focus and for good reason; it is productive of nasty
> publicity and
> potential liability.

These are not isolated cases. The presence of this type of material is 
systemic, arguably within present policy, and, it seems to me, supported by 
community consensus.

The Sun is used as a source in several thousand articles on Wikipedia, 
including many BLPs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&ns0=1&redirs=1&advanced=1&search=thesun&limit=500&offset=0

We might consider generating a list of sources like radaronline and The Sun, 
identifying them as unwelcome, and creating a noticeboard where editors can 
apply for exceptions in the few cases where a source like that has something 
of encyclopedic value to say. I am fairly convinced though that a proposal 
like that would result in 2 MB of arguments and in the end come to nothing.

For better or worse, Wikipedia in its present state is more of a news 
aggregator than an educational resource, and the reason is that the 
community likes it that way.

Andreas