Talk:Reid Stowe/Comments

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  • The period of time from 1978 to 1997 is not documented yet. Mr. Stowe conducted a five month voyage to Antartica with a crew of eight; originating from New Zealand
    • Added summary information about the Antarctic trip, 1986 - 1987. As for the rest of the time, he seemed below the radar screens insofar as published information is concerned. — Gosgood 16:37, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
  • coverage of the actual start of the 1000 Days at Sea, commencing April 21, 2007, not in place yet.
    • Added today — Gosgood 23:07, 16 May 2007 (UTC)
  • references are a bit thin; text has overdependence on an interview between Stowe and Hudson Channer: old (04-Aug-2003), and the interviewer only asked softball questions
    • There is a later Stowe/Channer interview that aired on 01-Apr-2005: have not reviewed it yet. — Gosgood 16:37, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Reid Stowe is something of a media darling at http:goodnewsbroadcast.com; the material there may be of some use, but I found it to be light on content and long on good feelings.
  • Coverage of his activities from 2003 to 2007 is spotty; the New York Times seems to have lost interest in him.
  • I haven't tracked down real basic stuff yet: such as his exact date of birth.
    • surmised from the project blog. The Jan 08 2007 blog entry notes his birthday party on the previous day.

I've found few sources critical of Stowe; this causes me to raise one eyebrow. Good strong print references are presently hard to come by; Mr. Stowe is a bit of a media darling, and available material reflects that. Gosgood 22:30, 13 May 2007 (UTC) Update:

  • Nothing in the article on his career as a fine artist. The project blog does make reference to sold paintings, but I don't have references yet documenting whether a gallery represents him or who has purchased his work recently. http://www.reidstowe.netfirms.com/ pesumably has some information, but is usually beyond its delivery capacity.
  • In 2005, Reid Stowe made a CD with S B, Reid and Suzanna The Bloodlines Some detils at CDBaby and International Herald Daily News. According to the first link, S.B. considered being a part of Mr. Stowe's crew, but decided against it for greatly differing "philosophy’s and basic moral standards." Gosgood 17:20, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Removed from the main article by Gosgood 12:31, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Prison

Reid was arrested in Manhattan and extradited to Maine in 1991. Reid's trial is public record via Docket #91-2365. His release from federal prison is documented via the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, but no details are given.[1]

I do not claim that this is false, but I have reason to doubt that it is about the Reid Stowe of this article. Mr Stowe of this article was born January 7, 1952; he would have been in his early forties at the time of this release, not 55. Unless (and until) this can be documented unambiguously, WP:BLP compels its removal. To quote: we must get it right. This addition is not sufficiently documented for me to conclude that with confidence. Gosgood 12:31, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

If you read the documentation on the Bureau of Prisons web site, the age refers to the prisoners current age; not the age when he was released. 65.60.211.107 20:37, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

  • Granted, anon, the record is certainly about Reid Stowe. But what sort of story does this record support? The Bureau of Prisons itself asks us to note that an entry in the BOP locator database does not necessarily mean the person has been sentenced and is serving time; it may be that "a person was detained pre-trial but criminal charges were dismissed, held as a material witness, [or] held for civil contempt." So this record in and of it self does not support "ex-con" allegations that various anonymous editors were inserting into the article last September 27th. Mmoes says he looked up the docket number and, in conjunction with the BOP data, comes away with a story that, to my mind, is of pretty limited scope; Reid Stowe was held for a year or so until his testimony concerning the trafficking of marijuana, supporting charges against David Munsell and James Twombley was secured.
Now I happen to be reading this from Mmoes Wikipedia talk page, not the court papers, and Wikipedia talk pages are absolutely unreliable sources. However, for sake of discussion, let us suppose that Mmoes is accurately reproducing court papers, even the plea-bargain part. What is the story these papers support? Certainly not that Stowe was involved in drug trafficking: he wasn't charged with anything. It seems he was held as a 'material witness' (my interpretation, not necessarily factual). Taking again for sake of discussion that these court papers are accurately reproduced, does this source now warrant the inclusion of the 'Prison section' in the main article? Absolutely not. Court papers, though public records, are primary sources. They are 'raw stuff' that goes into the analysis, synthesis, and interpretation furnished by an author/journalist composing a secondary source: a newspaper or magazine article, or a book. When a tertiary work like Wikipedia looks for foundation references for its articles, it turns mainly to secondary sources because, by and large, wikipedia editors are not competent to apply analysis, synthessis, and interpretation "to make sense" of raw primary sources: to do so would be to engage in original research. This material on Mmnos talk page furnishes a working example: we interpret all kinds of dark and nasty things about Reid Stowe. Thoughts that the guy was just as guilty as the rest of 'em, but plea-bargained his way out of a near-certain conviction, automatically leaps to mind to all but the most innocent naif and is just the sort of on-the-fly "synthesis" that Wikipedia absolutely wants to avoid, because to allow such synthesis to occur in connection with a biography of a living person opens Wikipedia up to charges of libel. I'm not here to defend Reid Stowe's innocence because I'm credulous, I'm here to defend Wikipedia from libel, and I do so absolutely out of self-interest: it's a useful resource; I donate money to keep it running, and I'd rather see my money used to buy server storage and pay for electricity, than have it line the pockets of defense lawyers because Reid Stowe finds the basis for a libel suit in his Wikipedia biography and he needs money to fix the bow sprit.
Now you may be cut from different cloth, whoever you are, and think that this Reid Stowe character is just about pulling the wool over the eyes of everyone on the planet, save for a few clear-headed types such as yourself. So be it. While I'm making all kinds of assumptions for sake of discussion, I'll make the assumption that you are a journalist of no small calibre. Then you know the deal: take the bits and pieces you have on Stowe to an editor of a reputable journal and do the story pitch. If you pull it off, you'll get some money up front (not a lot, but maybe enough to avoid the 9-to-5 gigs for awhile), a byline, and and some time to put The Truth all together. Once it's published, meaning that an editor is willing to stake his or her publication's reputation on your work, then Wikipedia has a decent secondary source on the dark side of Reid Stowe, a framework in which to cite these court papers, and a basis for changing the article. Short of that, find the journalist who has already put together the article. Short of that — well if entails bits and pieces of primary sources that engender interpretive guess work, then you've just plowed up against my pig-headed self-interest, which, at times, makes me something of an exclusionist. Have fun. Gosgood 01:47, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
    • Regatta dog has posted facsimiles and transcripts of Reid Stowe's sentencing hearing at 1000 Days of Hell blog; the editor had obtained the documents via the Freedom of Information Act. Reid Stowe had pleaded guilty to importing 30,000 pounds of marijuana into the State of Maine. The sentencing hearing was held January 22, 1993 concerning criminal importation of marijuana into Maine in 1987; Stowe was sentenced to a one year term of imprisonment. It was a light sentence; Stowe was a minor figure in a larger importation scheme, according to the sentencing transcript.
In this matter, I believe Biography of Living Persons, Presumption in favor of privacy rules. He did it. He regrets it. He pleaded guilty. He served his time. The sentence he received does not entail wearing a scarlet letter for the rest of his born days. It has little bearing on the article. Enough said. Gosgood (talk) 18:37, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Refernces

  1. ^ Federal Bureau of Prisons (1993). Inmate Locator (English). Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on September 27, 2007.