Talk:Joseph C. Wilson

Overhaul of article

I am a fairly new Wikipedia editor, and am probably rushing in where angels fear to tread. But I believe the main article could benefit from some tightening. From an NPOV standpoint, I am particularly concerned about the phenomenon of citation to editorials, presented as if these were reportage rather than opinion, usually for quite pejorative statements about the subject (that he is a nobody, a blowhard, etc). I also question the amount of space devoted to allegations made in WorldnetDaily, and wonder if this is an appropriately mainstream and factual source for Wikipedia. (I note that there is substantial support among senior Wikipedia people for the proposition that it is not.) Finally, the article is over-long and the chronology confusing ("Plamegate" is mentioned several paragraphs before the visit to Niger, though it happened after). I propose an overhaul which will shorten the article, and fix the chronology, while respecting NPOV standards. I will go section by section, and propose each specific change I want to make here before proceeding. Oh, and by the way, I will review the archived discussion to make sure I don't reinvent the wheel. Jonathanwallace (talk) 18:22, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

I followed you here from Wikipedia:Editor assistance/Requests. Interesting biography of a living person with a wiki article that has had no edits since 2005, but hundreds of edits before that date. Very unusual in my (short) wiki experience  :-) Ottawahitech (talk) 21:58, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. I feel like Mr. Jones in the Dylan song (there's something happening here but I don't know what it is). I also posted a request for clarification on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard Jonathanwallace (talk) 22:34, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

First edit

I just changed the title of the "Plamegate" section to "Disclosure of Valerie Plame Identity". I have found Wikipedia guidance that "-gate" is a disfavored formulation, and in fact I don't find that the occurrence is routinely referred to as "Plamegate" in media anyway. I am reading the archive to make sure I don't reinvent any wheels. Philosophically, I will approach editing this page with extreme caution, doing two things that are not required by Wikipedia policy: 1. I will announce any change I am about to make here, then wait a decent interval; 2. although I believe there is matter worthy of deletion in the article under Wikipedia source rules and weight policies, I will reorganize and restructure, and where appropriate add content, rather than deleting anything on a first pass. I would ask anyone who disagrees to engage me in discussion here, rather than reverting any changes after they are made. I look forward to working together. Jonathanwallace (talk) 03:37, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Chronology and other edits

I have now read the whole archived discussion thread. I am very eager to avoid similar edit wars and mutually assured reversions, so again commit to discussing the specifics of any change here, and ask anyone who disagrees to set forth their thoughts in response. First thing I want to do is reorganize the chronology of the piece, which is confusing. I will move the discussion of the Valerie Plame disclosures after that of the Niger trip. I will probably group all career details first, then the Niger trip, then the Plame disclsoure, then the book, lawsuit, etc. After these factual/biographical sections, I will stick close to the existing structure of opinions, other media disputes, etc. I am not proposing to delete any material, but would like to streamline or summarize some of the extensive quoting from editorials, which I think is overlong, dull and confusing. There may also be some material in the more straightforwardly biographical sections which can be appropriately moved down to the opinion sections. However, before I do anything along these lines, I will post something here about the specific edits I want to make. Jonathanwallace (talk) 15:10, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Revised

I just substantially overhauled the article to accomplish the follwing: 1. Reorganize sections to place them in chronological order; 2. Eliminate redundant material which was inserted due to the heavy, patchwork editing that occurred as the events unfolded; 3. Move information from "Commentary" and "controversies" sections to factual sections above, as appropriate; 4. Streamline a lot of the overly detailed "on the one hand, on the other" stuff and the "he's a hero/he's a goat" repetition; 5. review and edit the article from the perspective of NPOV, weight, and readability concerns; 6. where appropriate, preserve brief mention of certain issues in the article while moving overly intricate detail into the footnotes; 7. eliminate a certain amount of original research and synthesis, and partisan-cruft on both sides of the issue. In general, I have tried to transform this into an article which can be read in five or ten years as an encyclopedic overview, rather than a highly confusing snapshot of a energetic debate of the mid-2000's. This is a work in progress, and I will be back regularly to keep improving it. Other eyes and edits to achieve these goals are quite welcome. The original article is preserved in my user space for comparison. Jonathanwallace (talk) 15:11, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Bad Reference

wikipedia is an Encyclopedia. So why is http://u-r-next.com/wilsonBio.htm an source???? http://u-r-next.com I think the person who wrote this is not that interrested in facts.. --188.107.125.251 (talk) 19:37, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

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• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080528062030/http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/documents/libby_indictment_28102005.pdf to http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/documents/libby_indictment_28102005.pdf
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Request for photo?

There's already a photo … so I've removed the request for a photo, as it is obviously not needed. Prisoner of Zenda (talk) 09:23, 1 September 2021 (UTC)