Talk:Rod Smith (politician)

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This page is about an active politician who is running for office, is in office and campaigning for re-election, or is involved in some political conflict or controversy.

Because of this, this article is at risk of biased editing, public relations manipulation, talk-page trolling, and simple vandalism.

More information: Involvement as prosecutor in an alleged stripper rape / prostitution matter at a UF fraternity house
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Why have the editors taken off all negative comments from this page that were sourced? Also, Wikipedia staff left all the positive unsourced statements, and then locked out all editability. Apparently a Wikipedia staff member has violated the Wikipedia mission in locking this page in as a political advertisement.grakoth 31 May 2006


I was going to add a section discussing Rod Smith's platform similar to what I did for Jim Davis, Tom Gallagher, and Charlie Crist, but was unable to find enough information on his stances. Does anyone have more information on his plans as Governor? Quberoot

I merged the polling section with the campaign section and I removed the controversy section as it did not list any citations. Doctor-of-fostat 17:29, 28 August 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Endorsements

Does anyone else feel that the endorsement section is superfluous? Much of the page being taken up by minor supporters seems non-encyclopedic and a bit POV to me. I'm considering deleting it but wanted to see other people's views first. Againstxmatt 16:06, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Ditching it for those reasons and because it's completely unsourced. --Flawiki 19:03, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

This page currently is one big political advertisement for the Rod Smith campaign. I have added the material on Lisa King, Smith's most famous case, and the campaign staff keeps taking it off. A movie called "Raw Deal" was made about this case and it is part of Mr. Smith's history and who he is as a politician, so really, it seems to me that the people who keep taking off any mention of Lisa King should lose their right to edit the page because they are censoring the page and the truth. Rod Smith is a Democrat, and many Democrats feel he is soft on rape, and that is just the way it is.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.210.70.212 (talk • contribs) 16:54, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

The issue is not opposing Rod Smith, the issue with Lisa King is to present the facts. Once again, all mention of Lisa King was removed, even though it was sourced. And now edit ability seems to have been removed from the page. Here is the sourced info that needs to stay on this page to make it relevant in Wikipedia as a sourced document:

In 1992, and again in 1996, Smith was elected State Attorney for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, in the Gainesville area, which led to both successes and failures. Among the successes were the creation of the circuit's first special prosecutions unit to crack down on crimes against women and children. Among the failures were Rod Smith's embarassing oversight of a rape case in 1999, where a young woman was raped by fraternity brothers and a videotape was made of the rape.[1] Smith's office never interviewed King even amid public outcry about the rape, and has reportedly done nothing about the rape charges. The press reported that Rod Smith stated "the evidence cannot sustain a rape charge since King's testimony was not reliable because she had consumed too much alcohol" - an ironic claim since the entire rape had been videotaped.[2]A subsequent effort by Rod Smith and others resulted in successfully protecting the rapists.[3] Rod Smith refused to prosecute the rapists and instead tried unsuccessfully to bring charges against the victim of the rape.[4] Many Democrats alledge that a politically ambitious Smith, at the time running for a state Senate seat, compounded the errors because he didn't want to offend a powerful ally.[5] This was made into a well-known movie called "Raw Deal", the true story of the 1999 case of Lisa Gier King and the Delta Chi fraternity at the University of Florida.[6]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

—the preceding comment is by Grakoth - 14:35 31 May 2006: Please sign your posts!

I didn't remove the bits but they really did need to go as the passages appeared to be a mix of original research, cites to sources not meeting reliable source standards, and where there were reliable sources the cited bits were inaccurately characterized. --Flawiki 15:18, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Flawiki, you've helped to completely remove any mention of this rape issue, which is absurd, considering that an entire internationally distributed movie has been made about it. And yet you justify removing any mention of it whatsoever? You are definately not interested in Wikipedia presenting balanced perspectives or truth. This page on Rod Smith is basically a Election fabrication because it completely leaves out any negative comments. Flawiki, these references you wanted removed are simply news headlines that are completely sourced, they are not "innacurately characterized". In addition, you have left the content from Rod Smith's Election campaign, which is COMPLETELY UNSOURCED! Wikipedia, in my opinion, is a joke.—the preceding comment is by Grakoth - 14:35 31 May 2006: Please sign your posts!

Well, I didn't remove anything from the article (I did revert the controversy language in the template that someone excised from this talk page). Although I didn't remove the stuff from the article I do however believe the bits didn't belong in a WP article. They are not encyclopedic, they suffer from RS and OR problems, and they do contain inaccurate characterizations (ex., the claim that the subject unsuccesfully brought charges against the stripper when the source material states that the UPD brought charges, the claim that the subject protected a gang of rapists, etc (that one is probably an OR problem)). As a result, the removed bits I think violate the anti-attack policy. It seems to me a less breatheless presentation would work better. --Flawiki 19:10, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
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