Talk:Berkley Bedell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
Good article GA This article has been rated as GA-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
This article is supported by the Politics and government work group.
Good article Berkley Bedell has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
October 19, 2007 Good article nominee Listed
A fact from Berkley Bedell appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 13 October 2007.
Wikipedia


[edit] Information

I added an infobox, and a lot of information (previously, this page was simply auto-generated.) If anyone has ideas for expansion or anything else, perhaps we can bring this page to a more "complete" status. - Minute Lake 21:06, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Article could probably use the official Congressional portrait, if it's accessible, and be placed in at least a few more relevant categories. John Carter 15:16, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
I couldn't find a Congressional portrait online (I searched here: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html .) Are there any other places I could check to find he portrait of him? Minute Lake 17:08, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
Update to this: I contacted Chris Dodd, and his staffers released the two images that they took with Bedell under a compatible Creative Commons license, and I uploaded both to Commons. I put one in the article already. I will try to modify the other in order to leave just the face, which could be used in the infobox. What do you think of trying to take Bedell out of the image, and putting it in the infobox?

[edit] GA Review

GA review (see here for criteria)
  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a (prose): b (MoS):
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a (major aspects): b (focused):
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    Fair representation without bias:
  5. It is stable.
    No edit wars etc.:
  6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.
    a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
  7. Overall:
    Pass/Fail:

Comments:

  1. The image in the infobox indicates that there's a problem with it, which should be resolved. In addition, the bottom picture need to include some time information to contextualize the picture (ie. in 2007, so we know approximately how old is he, or something similar)
    If I can't find a better image, should I just remove it? Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  2. In the lead, the phrase "He would win in a rematch, however, two years later." needs to be replaced with something more formal sounding. Same with the "Running for Congress" section.
    Fixed, I think. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  3. The "Early life" section could use some expansion. Who were his parents and what did they do? How did his familial life affect his future career? How and why did he decide to get into politics? You don't have to answer all of these questions, especially if the information is not available, but these are the types of questions that you can ask to get you started.
  4. All references should use citation templates, or a similar format.
    Do all the references violate this format? I'm using the same reference format for almost all of the citations right now. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  5. Some statements require citations:
    The first paragraph of "Early life"
    "This type of communication told Bedell of the types of issues affecting his farming constituency. Thus, though Bedell had not farmed in his life, he would take steps in Congress to benefit farmers." (Running for Congress) These sentences also have poor wording, and also make me worry about original research, especially without a citation.
    This wasn't OR, Reid said this. Bedell only found out about Waterway Usage Fees because of the meetings with constituents. I added the cite. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
    "He also claimed that certain large oil companies underpaid their "windfall taxes" in certain cases and wanted to pass legislation to increase regulations on these corporations." (Investigations of large businesses)
    Cite added. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
    "Bedell would resign before Reagan's acts in Central America would culminate with the Iran-Contra Affair." (Clash with Reagan)
    Cite and reference added. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
    "Since then, he has founded a center for alternative medicine. Due largely to his friendship with Tom Harkin, he remains an important political figure in Iowa, with politicians such as Howard Dean meeting him in their trips to the state." (After politics)
    Cite added. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
    "Bedell said that it was unbelievable for the United States to settle disputes with war, and he said that an Iraq war would be similar to the Vietnam War." (After politics)
    Cite added. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  6. All one or two sentence paragraphs should be merged with surrounding paragraphs, as they cannot stand alone.
    I think I fixed this. Minute Lake 22:28, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  7. The "Controversy" section is too short to stand as its own Level 2 header and should be made a Level 3 header of another section.
    Changed to level 3. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  8. "As an opponent of the Vietnam War, Bedell signed a petition urging against United States military intervention in Iraq. This petition was signed with the names of 70 former Congressmen from the 1970s and was presented on March 15, 2003." (After politics) Presented to whom or what?
    Added that it was presented in a press conference. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  9. The article should have a succession box at the bottom of the page, like the one in Wiley Mayne.
    Added. Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  10. Overall, a lot of the prose seems too colloquial for an encyclopedia. There are several examples, in addition to the ones mentioned above, such as "his fish tackling business took off" (Early life) and "Reagan's agricultural plan called for a gradual reduction in farm subsidies, among other things" (Clashes with Reagan)
    I fixed those. Are there any others I should address? Minute Lake 22:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
  11. The whole article paints somewhat of a glowing picture of Bedell, although the controversy section is there. If there's anything to balance the article out a bit, please add it.

Therefore, to allow for these changes to be made, I am putting the article on hold for a period of up to seven days, after which it may be failed at any time. Thank you for your work thus far. Cheers, CP 04:26, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA Review, Phase 2

Great work, and the image problem seems to have resolved itself. Here's my next round of suggestions.

  1. The image in the infobox is fine, but it needs some context. (ie. Berkley Bedell in 2007)
    How do I put a caption for infobox images? I tried the "normal" way and it didn't work. Minute Lake 04:51, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
    The parameter "| caption = Blah blah blah" will work. Cheers, CP 18:30, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
    Ok, thanks! It should be finished now. :) Minute Lake 00:43, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
  2. In the lead, it's the word "rematch" that I am objecting to. It sounds too sporty and colloquial for an article about a serious politician.
    Fixed. Minute Lake 04:51, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
  3. On further reflection, the "Early life" section is passable for a Good Article, though expansion couldn't hurt. It would definitely need to be expanded if you wanted to move up to A or FA Class.
    OK, I will try to find more sources about his parents and childhood later on. Minute Lake 04:51, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
  4. Regarding citation templates, anything that has an author (as in, one that you can easily find in the article) should list the author in the citation. Reference #17 needs beefing up (author, source, etc.) Also, every source needs an access date (Refs 7 and 8 are good examples of this: Retrieved on.... they can all be today's date, but it needs to be there)
    All right - they should all list access date and author now. Minute Lake 04:51, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
  5. Under "Controversy," if there's a citation or newspaper article that mentions that no charges were filed against him, then it should be cited at the end of the sentence. If not, however, that's fine too because A)It's unlikely to be challenged and B)It's a bit hard to prove a lack of something if no one goes out at says it.
    Hmm, yeah, I looked for any follow-up articles that would imply that he got charged, and it looks like the story died. Minute Lake 04:51, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

If this is all done, the article should be good for GA status. Cheers, CP 00:31, 18 October 2007 (UTC)