The removed text purporting to describe a traffic accident and resulting lawsuit involving Ambassador Hartog Levin is factually inaccurate and inconsistent with several Wikipedia policies, including those governing the biographies of living persons and prohibitions against the use of self-published sources.
First, the entire passage describing the incident and lawsuit cites to a single self-published source. That source is a blog entry authored by Brendan Kevenides, who was the attorney for the plaintiff in the personal injury lawsuit described in the removed text. [1]. In that promotional blog post, Mr. Kevenides inaccurately describes the events of the accident (which he did not witness), gives a first-person account of the history of the lawsuit, including depositions he took in the case, makes ad hominem attacks on Ambassador Hartog Levin and her husband, and touts the settlement that he obtained for his client. The blog itself is maintained by “Bike Law,” a self-described “network of independent lawyers and law firms who share a common approach to the law and to helping cyclists.” The blog appears to be a marketing tool for attorneys, like Mr. Kevenides [2], who represent bicyclists in personal injury cases. Mr. Kevenides posts regularly on the “Bike Law” blog about his cases [3].
Mr. Kevenides authored his blog post on the accident and lawsuit on December 8, 2015. The next day, December 9, 2015, the offending text citing to that blog post was added to Ambassador Hartog Levin’s biographical Wikipedia article. Whether the December 9 revision to the biography was done by Mr. Kevenides, his client, or a third-party, there is no question that the only cited source for that text is the self-published and inherently biased blog post of the plaintiff’s attorney in the litigation described.
The sole reliance on a self-published and biased source is particularly egregious here because the article at issue comprises the biography of Ambassador Hartog Levin, a living person. Wikipedia policy on changes to such entries provides that information about living persons “adhere strictly to all applicable laws in the United States, to this policy, and to Wikipedia’s three content Policies: neutral point of view (NPOV); verifiability (V); and no original research (NOR). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons#Reliable_sources. The content purporting to describe the accident and lawsuit involving Ambassador Hartog Levin violates several of those policies. The description of the accident and lawsuit taken from Mr. Kevenides’ marketing blog is not remotely neutral, relaying the self-promotional narrative of the advocate for one of the parties to the lawsuit. Additionally, it describes disputed facts that cannot be verified independently, including the false allegation that Ambassador Hartog Levin “fled the scene,” when in fact she stopped and sought to exchange information with Mr. Kevenides’ client, who declined to provide his name and told her that he was alright and that the accident was his fault. Ambassador Hartog Levin called the police the evening of the incident to report it, but was told that no report would be taken.
The policy on “Biographies of living persons” goes on to state that any contentious material about a living person that is (1) “unsourced or poorly sourced,” (2) a conjectural interpretation of a source, (3) “relies on self-published sources,” or (4) relies on sources “that fail in some other way to meet Verifiability standards” should be removed immediately and without waiting for discussion. Accordingly, the removal of this paragraph is sanctioned, and in fact mandated, by Wikipedia policy. Dmfeeney (talk) 21:01, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
- You will probably get more responses to your request for a review of your edits if you post at the biographies of living persons noticeboard. The conflict-of-interest edit request queue is heavily backlogged and there are very few Wikipedia users monitoring it. Thanks, Altamel (talk) 22:30, 9 March 2016 (UTC)