[WikiEN-l] Fixing "many people regard..."

Sun Jan 18 14:17:15 UTC 2004

At least in the case of contemporary, political matters:

If it is really true that "many people" in the contemporary mainstream 
believe something, it should not be hard to find a well-known public 
figure, or political columnist, or major-newspaper editorial writer, 
who expresses that belief.

For example, "some people regard the situation in Iraq as a guerrilla 
war" can be replaced with "Army Gen. John P. Abizaid said that forces 
in Iraq were 'conducting what I would describe as a classical 
guerrilla-type campaign against us.'"

The big problem with attributing a view to "some people" or "many 
people" is that it is an unverifiable source. (It's sometimes suggested 
that opinion polls be cited, but suitable poll results are generally 
hard to find. Polling organizations sell their services; you can't just 
go online and access the full results of every Harris/Interactive poll 
that's ever been conducted, search for relevant results, and snip out 
fair-use extracts).

Ideally the person cited should have more stature or neutrality than, 
Al Franken or Ann Coulter. But even the use of a Franken or Coulter 
IMHO fixes the problem. It establishes several things, fairly 
objectively. 1) the point of view is being expressed really in the 
contemporary mainstream (not just held by single-taxers or 
hollow-earthers).  2) The accuracy of the quotation/citation can be 
checked. 3) The reader either already has, or can easily form, an 
opinion about the source's point of view and reliability.

--
Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith at world.std.com alternate: 
dpbsmith at alum.mit.edu
"Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print!
Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/