Talk:Michael Billington (activist)

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[edit] Undue weight?

I have restored the material in this edit because I don't see an argument for undue weight here. If anything, the undue weight would be all the details from the prosecution's case in Billington's trial that Will has added. --Niels Gade (talk) 22:48, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

It was a TV appearance on an obscure Iranian talk show. It's hardly worth mentioning at all. Has it been mentioned in any 3rd-party source as being a "debate" or even being significant? Do you really think that it's more important than crimes that led to a 77-year sentence? Giving it a whole paragraph does give it excess weight. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 22:50, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Dismissing the "Four Corners" program as "an obscure Iranian talk show" is a classic example of WP:BIAS. --Niels Gade (talk) 23:13, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Among English-language TV shows across the globe, are you saying it's "prominent"? It's not even in the native language of its country. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 23:29, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems to me that an important indication of the "prominence" of the show was the presence of Billington's opponent in the debate, London School of Economics Asia expert James Putzel. It seems odd that you would delete that, and then turn around to call the program "obscure." Most larger nations produce foreign language broadcasts -- the U.S. certainly does -- and they attach a lot of importance to them, considering them to be one of the techniques of diplomacy. --Terrawatt (talk) 08:01, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

Why was Category:American criminals removed? Is there any question about whether the subject was convicted of a felony? ·:· Will Beback ·:· 23:50, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I removed it after Category:Political prisoners and victims was removed. The subject's notability stems from the controversy over whether he was unjustly imprisoned. That controversy is unlikely to be settled here at Wikipedia. Therefore, Wikipedia should acknowledge the controversy by placing him in both categories, or neither. --Marvin Diode (talk) 00:22, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Each cateogry stands on its own. There is no legitimate reason to remove the subject from the category. I dispute your assertions about the other category, but that's not relevant to the matter of whether Category:American criminals is correct. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 01:20, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm going to restore it unless there's a reason not to. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 19:00, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

If you restore it, be sure to restore Category:Political prisoners and victims as well. I see that new documentation has been added to support that category. --Marvin Diode (talk) 20:52, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

That's a different issue. Category:Political prisoners and victims has a problem in that it's a subjective designation. It's the equivalent of "Unfairly imprisoned people", but there's no objective determination of who belongs. It would be a contentious category for this article. OTOH, no one argues that the subject was not convicted and served time for felonies. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 21:31, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't know why I'm pointing this out to you, because it should be obvious, but the designation "criminal" implies that the subject was "fairly imprisoned," which would be a contentious category for this article. --Marvin Diode (talk) 22:20, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a source for that definition? ·:· Will Beback ·:· 22:23, 12 June 2008 (UTC)