On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 06:19:18AM -0800, Jimmy Wales wrote:
Some of that is unavoidable, but we should be careful
not to let this
discussion (about possible sources of bias in the wikipedia) to turn
into a flamewar about what is undoubtably a very emotional and very
VERY complex situation.
The flames have been going on for months. The discussion needs to
happen so the flames can be put out. If they spread to the mailing
list, that is not an excuse for forestalling the discussion and allowing
the current bad situation to continue.
I think that this notion -- that "free
discussion" is "censored" in
the US is absolutely farcical.
I quote here the learned Professor Noam Chomsky, in his book "The Common
Good", published in 1998. In context, he wrote this paragraph about how
the media in the USA (and many other parts of the world) operate:
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly
limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively
debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and
dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free
thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the
system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the
debate.
Certainly potential bias does deserve a centralized and
open
discussion.
Your phrasing here seems to indicate you don't wish to acknowledge the
fact of already existing bias in the Wikipedia. It does exist. And it
is preventing the Wikipedia from attracting credentialed contributors.
In fact, it has driven away several credentialed contributors that I
know of. And this fact prevents Wikipedia from gaining much academic
esteem.
You always seem to come down on the side of those who are pro-Israel
and/or populist, without regard to the merits or facts. That is your
bias. As long as you decide who gets to play on your wiki, it will
reflect your personal biases.
I don't know what can be done about this; obviously asking you not to be
biased won't work, as you haven't admitted your biases to your own self
yet.
Cunctator, what would you recommend? You seem to have ideas like
soft-security, and so forth. What would be a solution?
Jonathan
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