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

[Fred Bauder]

>
> On Fri, 4 Feb 2011, Fred Bauder wrote:
>> Clearly there are issues. I'm on Jimbo's side with this though. Some of
>> my earliest edit wars were over whether The People's Republic of China
>> could be described in the introduction as a totalitarian dictatorship.
>> What has currently been hit on is "single-party state governed by the
>> Communist Party of China (CPC)." with a link to "single-party state" an
>> artificial construct for which there is little published authority.
>>
>> We can't get so picky and bound up in rules that stating the obvious is
>> forbidden.
>
> If we are serious about letting the sources dictate the content, and not
> the
> sources justify the content we want, then this comparison does not work.
>
> To have China described as a "totalitarian dictatorship" is in my mind
> not
> neutral, because it is simply to apply populist boo words to something we
> don't like. However, be that as it may, it would be reasonable to apply
> such
> a label if it were attributed to a leading Sinologist or some Professor
> of
> International Politics, who is an authority on comparative governmental
> systems, it would not be appropriate if it were attributed to
> wehatecommmies.com, freechina.org, or Fox News.
>
> To take Jimbo's and Prem Rawat, that's exactly what he did. He used two
> evangelical anti-cult exorcists, and a couple of tabloids, and the
> circumvention of "popular press" and "anti-cult" attribution, to
> negatively
> label the subject in the most prominent weighted way possible. (And I
> notice
> the edit remains in the article - probably because it appeals to the
> house
> POV). Now, the chap may be a cultist - but my question would be: how are
> serious specialist scholars, working in the field, assessing him? And
> should
> that not be given more weight than eccentric critics and non-critical
> journalists?
>
> The sources here are chaff and, even if not excluded, should be weighted
> as
> such.
>
> Scott

You've certainly framed the issue, but there are four lights.

http://videosift.com/video/How-many-lights-do-you-see-Captain-Great-Picard-Moment

Fred