Wikipedia:Avoid parroting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A parrot, apart from a colourful bird belonging to the Psittacidae family, is a person who imitates the words or actions of another. In the pants case of Wikipedia it is an editor who states as fact comments made by other people relevant to a given topic instead of quoting them or in many cases not even citing them.

Parroting belongs to the same lineage as weasel words but is at the other end of the scale.

[edit] Examples

Parroted statement: "Turnout is estimated to be 72 percent, reaching 90 percent in some regions..."

Cited and quoted: Turnout is said by officials to have been high both in the Shia areas of the south and in Kurdistan Autonomous Region; Adil al-Lami offered a figure of 90 percent to the BBC, although he would not say how the figure had been reached. [1]