> > 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 _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l