Talk:Gene Weingarten

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This page has been cited as a source by a media organization. See the 2007 press source article for details. The citation is in: Gene Weingarten. "Wiki Watchee", The Washington Post, March 11, 2007.

An individual covered in this article, Gene Weingarten, has edited Wikipedia as 69.255.218.128 (talk • contribs).

[edit] Query

Does anyone have any more biographical information on Weingarten? This seems pretty thin. Also, we could use a public-domain picture. betakate 21:12, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

• Weingarten wrote about this page in his Sunday column. --JayHenry 17:19, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Weingarten's perspicacity

Today's Weingarten column indicates that he came into Wikipeda and intentionally vandalized it with false information, then reported it in his column, both scolding Wikipedia for not catching his vandalism and chuckling about how easy it was to do. Then he attacked the User who chided him for the vandalism and published his Real Life information. Corvus cornix 19:25, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Uh, well... he is a humor columnist... and it was funny. Besides he never would have published the RL information without permission. --JayHenry 19:30, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I didn't find it funny, I found it arrogant and irresponsible, and I *hope* he got the other User's permission first. Corvus cornix 19:31, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, he had my permission _SUBWAYguy 21:41, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

It was silly, sure, and the 'let's vandalize wikipedia and see what happens' shtick is getting old, in my opinion, but I wouldn't call Weingarten's actions 'arrogant' or 'irresponsible.' He didn't 'scold' wikipedia for not catching his edits sooner, and I think that 'attacked' is a terribly strong word. Innacurate information was added to the article, it was found, and it was reverted, and the user who added it was asked nicely not to do it again. Which is, you know, kind of how wikipedia is supposed to work. And it seems Mr. Weingarten agrees: "All in all, the system worked. I'm impressed.." -- Vary | Talk 22:24, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Although I do have to note that this does not seem to be Mr. Weingarten's first foray into editing wikipedia. :) -- Vary | Talk 22:32, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The column in question

It seems odd that no one's linked to the column in question. Why argue about secondary source material? Click here for the URL for Gene Weingarten's column which ran Sunday, March 11, 2007, in the Washington Post (from washingtonpost.com). 64.236.128.27 17:47, 12 March 2007 (UTC) zetlan at gmail dot com

The column is already linked in the little box at the top of the page about the column. Do you see the box that says, "This page has been cited as a source by a media organization. See the 2007 press source article for details. The citation is in: Gene Weingarten. "Wiki Watchee", The Washington Post, March 11, 2007."?

If you click on Wiki Watchee it takes you to the article. By the way, what's up with the horrendous formatting on that article? --JayHenry 18:20, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

""I majored in psychology, but only because it was the easiest major," is Weingarten's description of his undergraduate college career at New York University. "I spent all my time as editor of the daily newspaper, and then dropped out with three credits to go, nearly killing my mother." He dropped out to spend months with a Puerto Rican streetgang in New York; this resulted in a cover story for New York Magazine, which launched his career." uh no 68.50.243.221 06:23, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I think this is true. But if we can't find a reference for it, we'll have to remove. Does anyone have a ref? --JayHenry 14:15, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

The article exists. It's cited in Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang: "Weingarten, Gene. "East Bronx Story: Return of the Street Gangs." In New York Magazine. Mary 27, 1972" -- Vary | Talk 21:10, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I've just removed a direct link to the 'wiki watchee' column. There's already a link to the 'Below the Beltway' archives in the external links section. We don't need direct links to any of Weingarten's columns that aren't referenced in the article, and the fact that this particular column mentions Wikipedia doesn't make it any more notable than any other. -- Vary | Talk 13:39, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Vary. There's a clear policy here too: WP:ASR#Writing about Wikipedia itself. And good job finding that Weingarten reference. I was pretty sure that was true. I'm guessing those quotes -- and indeed -- most of the article were sourced from his chat. It'd be nice if we could find links to at least put minds at ease about the unsourced quotes. I'll try to work on that at some point. --JayHenry 15:12, 16 March 2007 (UTC)