Wikipedia:Notability outranks POV disputes
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Notability outranks POV disputes.[1] In other words, a subject's notability is a higher factor, for creating a separate article, than considering the factor of controlling future point-of-view disputes (WP:NPOV_dispute). Individual notability definitely comes from multiple separate events covered by major sources (WP:BLP1E), especially events occurring years apart. That level of notability is what justifies creation of a separate WP:BLP bio article for a person. The separate biographical article is not denied simply to avoid content disputes concerning the events about that person.
Examples edit
For example, if the murder of Meredith Kercher had occurred in Aruba, and then years later, suspect Amanda Knox had been last seen with a female prisoner found strangled in Peru, that would clearly be beyond 1 event: 2 felony crimes (a murder, then a manslaughter). Instead, Amanda Knox was arrested for the first murder in Italy, then two years later, accused the Perugia police of forcing a false confession: treated as 2 felony crimes (a murder, then defamation of police). Involvement in 2 widely reported felony crimes, years apart, is a case when WP:BLP1E no longer applies. The chain of connection is broken when the 2nd event is not a likely outcome of the first (instead, a choice was made): when the Perugia court declared a 2nd trial for defamation, they too were acknowledging there was a 2nd event, separate from the first trial. Instead, when a murder is followed by a typical jury trial (for that location), that situation can be seen as one major event, involving both the murder and the subsequent trial, as the likely outcome.
However, when a person is charged with 2 separate felony charges, years apart, those are 2 separate events, requiring separate legal proceedings. Ignoring either felony charge is not acceptable, just as ignoring either person's death, in Aruba or in Peru, cannot be used to claim, "If the first event had not occurred, a person would be just another student". Similarly, Amanda Knox has notability from coverage of separate events, years apart.
Wikipedia cannot delete the article of "Charles Darwin" by claiming a need to combine all POV discussions about text within article "Evolution", nor can Wikipedia delete article "Earth" as a POV fork of "Flat Earth Society". For those reasons, a separate bio article is based on individual notability, and not denied to reduce content debates.
Individual notability from one event edit
However, individual notability, of a person, can exist before major coverage in 2 separate events. A situation of "extremely high coverage" (for an extended period of time) confers notability beyond wp:BLP1E. The individual notability of Knox was clear when an Italian television poll listed Amanda Knox as a bigger personality than Carla Bruni (in June 2009, NYTimes.com).[2] Hence, Wikipedia has separate bio articles, of people known from only one event, such as "Lizzie Borden" who was acquitted of the murder charges (see that article for sources).
See also edit
References edit
- ^ For the need of a balanced point-of-view, see: WP:NPOV.
- ^ "An Innocent Abroad - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com", Timothy Egan, Opinionator Blog, NYTimes.com, June 2009, web: NYTimes-inno.