Talk:Joseph Medill
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[edit] POV and accuracy disputed
I dispute the statement
- Medill was a racist who opposed slavery. In one editorial, Medill espoused putting strychnine or arsenic in the food of unemployed citizens.
on grounds that:
- The term racist is POV. Being part of an encyclopedia, this article should include factual information about Medill's views, and the reader left to form his or her conclusions.
- The claim that Medill espoused poisoning vagrants is an old chestnut that never seems to die, and which is based on distortions made by enemies of Medill and the Chicago Tribune. The facts pertinent to both sides of this claim should either be backed up with factual data, or the statement removed altogether.
The claim is based on an item that did appear in the Chicago Tribune during the 1880s as reply to a correspondent, wherein a Tribune reporter made what was a wholly improper "suggestion" about means to solve residents' problems with vagrants. Detractors of the Tribune have claimed that it was editorial policy, while the paper's supporters have asserted that editorial policy was always clearly labeled as such, and the item in question was not.
I am probably in a good position to document the incident and rewrite the piece with NPOV, but for now I'm flagging the article, lest anyone not familiar with the indident assume the statement to be neutral and factual.
- — JonRoma 21:02, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
