Talk:Fergie Chambers

The Free Press source

@David Gerard and other interested editors. As I mentioned in my edit summary, I would read that RSN discussion as "no consensus". That doesn't mean it needs to be removed from BLPs, particularly as the Free Press source is not used for controversial claims or challenged material, and is backed up by other sources that are clearly reliable. While I don't think it's essential to include this particular source, I don't think it is essential to remove it, either, and it provides a journalistic profile of Chambers which we are able to pull several useful encyclopedic details from for our article. —Ganesha811 (talk) 15:57, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Literally the first response is "absolutely not". In any case, you shouldn't be looking for excuses to add anything other than reliable sources to a WP:BLP, and certainly not just for colour. Why are you so very keen to include this particular source? - David Gerard (talk) 17:42, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I think we both know that "one person's opinion" =/= "consensus", even if they post it earliest. As I said above, I don't think it's essential to include the Free Press source, and I started this talk page section to discuss the source rather than edit warring about it on the page. No need to cast aspersions about my motives. If the source stays out, it's hardly a tragedy. Mother Jones, the most extensively used source for this article, is considered reliable but clearly biased per WP:RSN - do you have concerns about that source as well, or is that fine per your reading of WP:BLP? —Ganesha811 (talk) 18:18, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

We're not talking about Mother Jones, but about The Free Press, an opinion site specifically created not to be a conventional NEWSORG per past RSN discussion - before that thread these two [1] [2] - David Gerard (talk) 21:28, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

The second discussion you've linked happened more than a year ago not long after the FP had been founded. Now we have much more information about it and naturally the latest discussion which deals specifically with this article (per WP:RS the reliability depends on context) has much greater weight than the other ones. Alaexis_¿question? 21:40, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Agreed. @David Gerard, I'm asking your opinion on Mother Jones because you have a lot of experience thinking through reliable sources and obviously are concerned about the types of sources used in BLPs. Personally, I think both it and this Free Press article are fine to be used in this article as they were. —Ganesha811 (talk) 22:05, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm not particularly interested in the use or not of Mother Jones, this discussion is about FP. Whataboutery sounds like you're unsure of your case - David Gerard (talk) 22:15, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I was genuinely asking - I'm really not trying to sneak a bad source into this article, I'm trying to learn about how our BLP policy handles sources that are reliable but biased, or where the consensus is unclear. I think it's clear from the second paragraph at WP:BLP that if the FP source were used to support contentious material, it would be right to remove it immediately. But in this article, the FP source was only used for basic biographical details. Those details are covered elsewhere, which is why I said in my very first comment that it is not essential that the FP source be used. —Ganesha811 (talk) 00:03, 12 July 2024 (UTC)