Guy Chapman aka JzG wrote:
And where an external source (in this case
Bear's Guide) says that two
institutions are run by the same people out of the same address, and
no known sources say otherwise, but the subject insists they are
different, how do we go about validating that? It's all very well for
them to say they are different, but surely that gets {{fact}}?
One way of at least limiting damage to our accuracy and credibility is
to explicitly mark such pages as being incomplete due to legal threats.
If Pacific Western University's lawyers prohibit us from writing the
sort of complete, neutral, verifiable article that we otherwise would
have done, then we have a duty to warn our readers of that fact before
they read our article.
Legal threats alone should not be the basis for any permanent resolution
of problems in an article. Temporarily removing material while the
facts are being checked is one thing, but once the facts are established
it is dangerous to be intimidated by some lawyer purporting to prohibit
the inclusion of valid information. There is a point where letting them
sue is the proper strategy.
As to whether the California and Hawaii operations are related, a check
of official records should provide the names of the directors for both
schools. That, more than anything else will serve to establish whether
they are operating at arm's length. That would be stronger evidence
than anything the institutions of "Bears' Guide" could give.
Ec