[WikiEN-l] Fwd: The counterattack of the PR companies

[Ken Arromdee]

On Thu, 19 Apr 2012, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
> As Sarah says, telling PR people whose day job it is to just present one
> side of the story to go right ahead isn't the solution. But we cannot close
> our eyes to the fact that there are editors who for whatever reason
> similarly have made it their job to only present one side of the story;
> that PR people may have a legitimate grievance when they come to Wikipedia;
> and that the restrictions we are applying to them are not applying to the
> anonymous editors on the "other side", for whom we prescribe "assume good
> faith", the right to edit anonymously, protection from having their motives
> questioned, and so forth.

It's exactly the same problem as BLPs, except for companies.  If someone
tries to edit their own BLP, they're told they have a conflict of interest.
Due weight problems?  The article's been vandalized for years?  Tough luck,
deal with it, we have our own procedures for dealing with vandalism.  We're
sure they'll work out someday.

If anything, it's worse for companies.  Nobody tells BLP subjects that because
they have a COI, they can't even remove incorrect statements about themselves.