[WikiEN-l] Terrorism

Sun Jan 18 12:02:57 UTC 2004

--- Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Ray Saintonge wrote:
> >"Many people regard ..." carries a strong POV wallop  It applies the
> 
> >logical fallacy that if a significant majority consider something to
> be 
> >true, then it must in fact be true.  
> 
> No it doesn't. If something is true, then it is true. If in fact a
> great many 
> people say and think a certain way, then the statement needs to be
> made. 

It isn't the truth of it that I am questioning.  I am questioning
that the "statement needs to be made".  Consider whether you would
like to see the statement "Some people consider that his teeth
are crooked" in (say) the article on George Bush even if the
truth of that statement could be positively established.
I guess that you would take it out, which (if I'm right) shows
that the mere truth of a statement is not really your criterion
for including it.  You must have an additional reason.  Not
referring specificially to yourself, I suggest that the main
reason that people include statements like "Some people believe
that X is a terrorist" is that they WANT to attach that label to
that person and not because they have a disinterested intention
to report a fact.  They should instead devote more effort to
reporting hard data about X ("X has been responsible for many
attacks on civilians, including ... and ..."), then readers who
like labels like "terrorism" will have no trouble attaching them.
I think this shows respect for the intelligence of the reader.

Zero.

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