Talk:Ben Wattenberg

Merging

Merging Ben Wattenberg and Ben J. Wattenberg.

I believe that Ben J. Wattenberg is the better article title (in case any other Ben Wattenbergs pop up), however text of Ben Wattenberg is much more complete, therefore moving this text here.

This was previous full text of Ben J. Wattenberg:

Ben J. Wattenberg is a pundit known for his PBS television show, Think Tank, his books, his work as a Senior Fellow at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute, managing the campaigns of Hubert Humphrey and Henry M. Jackson and his speechwriting for Lyndon B. Johnson.

He received his B.A. from Hobart College.

Wattenberg is a father of four: Ruth, Daniel Wattenberg, Sarah, and Rachel. He is the brother of actress Rebecca Schull.

-- All appears to be redundant to text of Ben Wattenberg that I'm moving. -- 201.78.233.162 17:09, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Previous Talk:Ben Wattenberg

This was entire text of Talk:Ben Wattenberg before merge: Moved here.

"Social Democrats U.S.A."

"I've been told before that Wattenberg was a member of SDUSA back when he was still a Democrat, and the Wikipedia article on them still makes that claim. Why was it changed?"

-- Moved by 201.78.233.162 17:19, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Wattenberg's son-in-law (Ruth's husband) is David Kusnet, former speach writer for Bill Clinton from 1992 through 1994.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.91.4.14 (talk) 01:02, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Turn to conservatism

Although he's described as being a Conservative, he's also listed as a speechwriter for a number of Democratic politicians.

Without getting into an argument over whether he should be correctly coined as a conservative or neo-conservate (I would choose the latter), someone should add something on how and when he moved towards the right.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.125.225.205 (talk) 19:51, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

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Requested move 23 June 2017

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was:  Not done - elapsed, no consensus DrStrauss talk 13:55, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

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(non-admin closure)

Ben J. Wattenberg → Ben Wattenberg – WP:COMMONNAME; he was more popularly known without the "J," such as the title of his PBS TV show [1]. Arbor to SJ (talk) 05:25, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

• Oppose. In the case of authors, a key consideration is their pen name. Ben Wattenberg signed his books "Ben J. Wattenberg" and the middle initial appears on the covers of all his books. —Roman Spinner (talk)(contribs) 22:05, 23 June 2017 (UTC)
  • So do many other media figures like these radio hosts. Mark Levin signs his books as "Mark R. Levin". Charlie Sykes books are signed "Charles J. Sykes". Senator Ted Kennedy wrote books as "Edward M. Kennedy". Arbor to SJ (talk) 07:35, 24 June 2017 (UTC)

Each case presents its own argument. Johnny Apple has always been referenced as R. W. Apple Jr.. Such matters, particularly relating to WP:COMMONNAME, may well be raised at Wikipedia talk:Article titles and associated talk pages. —Roman Spinner (talk)(contribs) 14:45, 24 June 2017 (UTC)

• Support per nom. Does seem at least as often used without the initial as with it, and in general we prefer not to include middle initials unless reliable sources tell us the common name is such, per WP:CONCISE and WP:NCP.  — Amakuru (talk) 13:45, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Requested move 4 July 2017

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Move. We have consensus that Ben Wattenberg is the WP:COMMONNAME. Cúchullain ^t/c 15:04, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

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Ben J. Wattenberg → Ben Wattenberg – Previous attempt failed, so trying again with stronger arguments.

This article should only be titled "Ben Wattenberg" because:

• WP:PRIMARYTOPIC: Wattenberg hosted a PBS talk show for nearly 15 years titled Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, without the middle initial.
• WP:COMMONNAME:
  • There are nearly 29,000 google search results for "Ben Wattenberg" - but only around 14k for "Ben J. Wattenberg".
  • In media appearances, he was usually addressed as just "Ben Wattenberg" - like in this 2008 Daily Show interview [2]. Also, most C-SPAN videos omit the initial [3].
  • Upon his passing, obituaries introduced him without the middle initial, such as The New York Times [4], Real Clear Politics [5], and American University's Current trade paper for public media [6]. However, The Washington Post obituary had the middle initial in the headline [7]. Arbor to SJ (talk) 06:06, 4 July 2017 (UTC)--Relisting. TonyBallioni (talk) 01:44, 17 July 2017 (UTC)
• Oppose. Subject's own chosen WP:COMMONNAME form should be taken into account, with the pen name serving as a key consideration. The examples presented in the previous discussion (Mark Levin / Mark R. Levin, Charlie Sykes / Charles J. Sykes or Ted Kennedy / Edward M. Kennedy) are also ripe for this type of discussion should anyone wish to submit a nomination. There are a number of such names: New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia always wrote and signed as Fiorello H. La Guardia and there is the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. Wikipedia articles list some presidents by their signature names (Lyndon B. Johnson) while others are not listed in such a manner (Richard Nixon, not Richard M. Nixon; Gerald Ford, not Gerald R. Ford or Donald Trump, not Donald J. Trump). Others, such as Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton were known solely by those respective forms which were both their signatures and pen names. —Roman Spinner (talk)(contribs) 06:47, 4 July 2017 (UTC)
  • However, Wattenberg has written articles as "Ben Wattenberg" for The Washington Times, like in 2001 and 2009. My google search of the washingtontimes.com website finds over 30 results for "Ben Wattenberg" but only four including the middle initial. Arbor to SJ (talk) 04:32, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

The un-bylined form of The Washington Times online presentation of Wattenberg's Think Tank on-air thought pieces or, perhaps, his printed views, suggests that Wattenberg did not write these pieces directly for The Washington Times as columns, but rather had them syndicated in some form which did not require the use of a byline. The bottom-of-text identification and micro-description of the author is commonplace for writers of un-bylined pieces or for authors whose writings do not regularly appear within the publication in question. —Roman Spinner (talk)(contribs) 18:11, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

• Support. Apologies to Roman, but according to our guidelines your oppose argument is not valid, and the previous move should have gone through. In a BLP situation, WP:COMMONNAME still applies, and in particular MOS:IDENTITY clarifies that we do not give any extra value to the name used by the person themselves, unless' "it isn't clear which is most used". In this case, it is clear from the evidence above that the version without the initial is indeed much more used, so the above clause doesn't apply, and we ignore the person's own preference.  — Amakuru (talk) 11:06, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Without a doubt, your arguments put this matter into proper perspective, but other considerations should also be taken into account. Wikipedia has hundreds of thousands of biographical entries which have a middle initial in their main title header. Some article creators are, in fact, so concerned with adding the middle initial in the header that they neglect to also create non-initial redirects to their creations. I have been forming such missing redirects for years, with another one (Martin Brooks → Martin E. Brooks) added yesterday.

However, other than specialized cases, such as stage names (Edward G. Robinson or Leo G. Carroll), with these actors virtually unrecognizable without their middle initials, individuals are not generally referenced by their names with the middle initials, but rather without such initials. In numerous cases, such as John Stuart Mill, rather than the equally unrecognizable John S. Mill, they are known entirely by their full triple name or simply by their surname, such as Thoreau. There are always exceptions — I have heard fairly frequent references to "George H. W." and "George W." to differentiate the father-son presidents.

In the case at hand, if we were to apply the WP:COMMONNAME standard to all those with middle initials, very few, if any, would be able to keep their initials. A few days ago, I examined the entry for The New York Times longtime military specialist Hanson Baldwin, whose byline had always been Hanson W. Baldwin, as indicated in the main header of his Wikipedia entry. Upon his death, however, The Times obituary headline read, "Hanson Baldwin, Military Writer, Dies" and only in the lead paragraph called him "Hanson W."
With authors, it may be argued that (with some pseudonymous or otherwise specialized exceptions) their pen name is also their common name as depicted by the Ben J. Wattenberg Amazon page or the Ben J. Wattenberg google search. —Roman Spinner (talk)(contribs) 18:47, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

• Support: do not include the initial if there is no need to do so. –Sb2001 ^{talk page} 14:29, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Quotes

"The major problem confronting the United States today is there aren't enough white babies being born. If we don't do something about this and do it now, white people will be in the numerical minority and we will no longer be a white man's land." The Birth Dearth 1987

Why not put this quote on the main page? JonesyPHD (talk) 06:30, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

References