Talk:John Seigenthaler

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Article needs to make clear that this is not Brian Chase the musician, also listed on Wikipedia

Making matters worse on the article about the OTHER (innocent) Brian Chase, there is a link back to this article. Rather than working as disambiguation, it creates the false impression that the wrong Brian Chase is the offender.

Sean7phil (talk) 16:47, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

I've added a note in the same parentheses as Brian Chase that this is not the musician. There probably is a better way of doing this, and if anyone wants to have a go, feel free. However, I did not want to create a disambig page just for a one-off non-notable person (who had done something notable) which would probably get deleted anyway. I see on the Brian Chase article that someone has cleared it up a bit there. Hopefully all this will prevent confusion. StephenBuxton (talk) 16:55, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Nearly FA quality

If we could only fill in a coherent narrative about his editor days -- the article's only lacuna. Lotsofissues 05:37, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

The article also mentions virtually nothing about his tenure as founding editorial director of USA Today. Kaldari 05:47, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

But I guess that's because there isn't really much (if any) info out there about it. He seems to be far more notable for his earlier activities at The Tennessean. Kaldari 22:21, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

The best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia

I'm floored.

--James S. 03:44, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

It gets more interesting if you realise that we were jostling for position with cnn.com at the time. Now no longer. ;-) Kim Bruning 04:04, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Heh, heh! Look who's next. --James S. 08:48, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Is that graph right? Wikipedia has 2 billion page views per day? I don't believe it.

• Statistics are easily fabricated to support whatever agenda. --Agamemnon2 07:12, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
  • You may think that sounds smart, but it isn't original and these statistics weren't fabricated. Golfcam 01:40, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
    • Who's next? :P But we shouldn't be poking fun at an issue which is definitely a sore point.--Shaliron 12:26, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
      • Cool it folks.. Don't forget that every single time us, the editors, also look at a page, do a revert, edit a small word, it also counts as a hit, because we are hitting the Wikipedia web site again.. It is that simple... Baristarim 07:55, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Don't count on it. "hits" don't mean people believe Wikipedia is a good and reliable source. It's just a curiosity, nothing more. nut-meg 22:25, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

I believe that was his point. Mdotley 06:18, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure this was good for Wikipedia-- reading the OP Ed about the slander has made me respect and trust Wikipedia less.

Sean7phil (talk) 15:53, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Red links

There seems to be a lot of red links. Are they really needed? For example, I think we could remove his high school link and probably a few others. Comments? Gflores ^Talk 15:56, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I think almost all of the red links can go. The only exception I feel strongly about is the National Headliner Award which should definitely have an article. The Sidney Hillman Prize and Robert F. Kennedy Book Award might also be worth leaving, although they are not as well known as the National Headliner Award. Kaldari 16:24, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Looks much better. Thanks. Gflores ^Talk 02:52, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Please note that red links are important; they help generate the list of Special:Wanted pages. +sj +

I don't think any of the red links that were eliminated were especially "wanted". Previously every person mentioned in the article was a link no matter how small their notariety.Kaldari 14:05, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

There is no mention of his son (who has the same name and his own Wiki page)- has he been deleted?

And Why is there a John Miller link above (To "liberal media" in the National Review) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.126.250 (talk) 14:24, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

Recent edits

I disagree with many of the recent edits to this article. Let's take them one-by-one:

1. Removing the word "prestigious"

   I disagree with this one the most. The Neiman Fellowship is the most prestigious journalism program in the United States. If you need me to cite something to back that up, here are 766 citations. Using the word "prestigious" here is not POV or overly floral writing. Wikipedia writing does not have to be completely bland and equivocal. We can use adjectives, yes, even strong ones, where appropriate.

   The lovely thing about hyperlinked text is that you can follow the link to find out exactly how prestigious a particular award is... you might investigate how other articles that link to Neiman Fellowship describe it, if at all.

   From Wikipedia:The perfect article: "The perfect Wikipedia article is nearly self-contained; includes and explains all essential terminology required in the article, such that someone could completely understand the subject without having to read many other articles."
   

   Unless you work in the field of journalism you probably have no idea what a Neiman Fellowship is. The prestige of being offered a Neiman Fellowship is certainly relavent to Seigenthaler's notability and career. Without the word "prestigous" the reader has no idea of the magnatude of the event and is left to assume that it is just another journalism program.Kaldari 20:24, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

2. Changing "a battle to eliminate the unsavory activities of the local branch of the Teamsters" to "a battle against the activities of the local branch of the Teamsters"

   The second version is misleading and makes it sound like the Teamsters have no legitimate or lawful activities.

   Whereas the former makes it sound as though all the activities of the Teamsters are unsavory. Perhaps "against certain activities" ? +sj +

   How about "began a battle to eliminate corruption within the local branch of the Teamsters"? Kaldari 20:32, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

3. Changing "Known as a staunch defender of civil rights" to "At one point"

   This also seems like a needless attempt to water-down the writing and make it safely bland. Really, we should have an entire paragraph (at the least) about Seigenthaler's legacy as a hero of civil rights. Instead, we have only a clause in one sentence (that has now been removed).

   There's no room for unsourced compliments in a good biography. If you want to cite a specific and moving recognition of his defense of civil rights, that's fine. If you want to write an informative paragraph about his heroic work about civil rights, even better. But indicate his heroism with detail and information, not with adjectives and vague claims of how he was known. +sj +

   Your point is well taken, however, given the fact that Seigenthaler's legacy as a prominent defender of civil rights is well known and agruably needs to be more emphasized in this article, I think it would be more helpful to ask for citations before gutting such statements rather than after. But I suppose I'm splitting hairs. If you challenge that the assertion is uncited, I suppose someone will have to find a citation... Kaldari 20:45, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

4. Removing "who declined to file suit".

   Anyone reading about the controversy, even in this summarized version is going to want to know what the outcome was. Once Chase confessed, what did Seigenthaler do? To leave the outcome out (however anti-climactic) is to leave the reader hanging. I don't think those five words add unneccessary length to the article. In fact I believe they contribute to an understanding of Seigenthaler's character (which is more appropriate for this article than other details such as the fact that Daniel Brandt was the person who traced the IP).

   All of that detail should be in the main article on the subject, not here. Chase's name isn't relevant enough to Seigenthaler to show up here at all. +sj +

   Agreed. Your new version is much better. Kaldari 20:49, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Kaldari 14:38, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Title of this article

The name "John Seigenthaler Sr." is something of a misnomer. For most of Seigenthaler's early life he was actually known as "John Lawrence Seigenthaler Jr." since his dad's name is also "John Lawrence Seigenthaler". Once he became a prominent journalist, he was generally referred to as simply "John Seigenthaler" or "John Lawrence Seigenthaler". It was not until relatively recently that people began referring to him as "John Seigenthaler Sr." to distinguish him from his son, the journalist John Michael Seigenthaler. This is a bit confusing, however, since the original John Lawrence Seigenthaler was also sometimes referred to as "John Seigenthaler Sr." back in the fifties. So to summarize this rather confusing history, the subject of this article has been known under three different names over the course of his life: "John Seigenthaler Jr.", "John Seigenthaler", and "John Seigenthaler Sr." Does it make sense for us to use "John Seigenthaler Sr." as the title? Or should it be change it to simply "John Seigenthaler" or "John Lawrence Seigenthaler"? Kaldari 20:37, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm disappointed no one has even bothered to comment on this. Mdotley 22:26, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

What if we used a Roman-numeral name system similar to IMDb.com, whereby the first John Doe is labeled John Doe(I), the second John Doe(II), the third John Doe(III), and so on? Since the first two John Seigenthalers were both John Lawrence, but the third John was John Michael, this perhaps would be the least ambiguous strategy. --Nonstopdrivel 23:55, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

That seems to be workable to me, but I'm not really familiare with WP naming conventions for articles. Is there any guidance there? Mdotley 23:36, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

WP naming convention is to use the name most commonly used for the person in reliable sources. If there is a conflict with another article title, you should use a disambiguating term in parentheses, for example, "John Seigenthaler (newspaper publisher)". In this case, "John Seigenthaler" would actually be adequate. Kaldari (talk) 19:44, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I decided to be bold (since no one has objected to the idea) and I moved the page. I think the new title is more accurate, less confusing, and more in line with Wikipedia naming conventions. Notice, for example, that virtually all of the sources cited in the references refer to him simply as "John Seigenthaler". Also, John Seigenthaler, Jr. has been moved to John Michael Seigenthaler, since he was never actually a "Jr." to begin with (see the talk page there). Kaldari (talk) 20:35, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Encyclopedic information or trivia?

"In 2002, when it was discovered that USA Today reporter Jack Kelley had fabricated some of his stories, USA Today turned to Seigenthaler, along with veteran editors Bill Hilliard and Bill Kovach, to monitor the investigation."

Is this important and relavent enough to include in Seigenthaler's article? It seems like a rather trivial fact compared to the rest of the article's content. I can think of many more notable events concerning Seigenthaler that are not even mentioned in this article for the sake of brevity and encyclopedic merit. Would anyone object if I removed this paragraph? Kaldari 06:39, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

It certainly is relevant. And while it is not the most important thing that Seigenthaler did in his life, I would not call it trivia either. Seigenthaller was chosen to oversee the investigation because he was considered to be one of the newspaper business's luminaries.

It is odd that you consider this to be trivia unworthy of inclusion, but you let go the comment that Dolores Watson gave up her dreams of a musical career to marry Seigenthaler and that John Nye served as publisher at the Tennessean while Seigenthaler was not working there. Can you explain why you did not feel the need to remove those bits of trivia? -- JPMcGrath 04:00, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

I suppose the main reason is that the Later Life section feels more like a list of random factoids than a coherant narrative, especially the last few paragraphs before the Wikipedia controversy section. I would like to see the section edited to contribute more to the overall narrative of the article, and part of that should include culling the factoids down a bit. I think that particular paragraph could be re-added if someone were to give it a bit more context, for example by mentioning it as an example of how Seigenthaler is considered one of the newspaper's luminaries and maybe mentioning other ways he has bee associated with the paper since his retirement. Originally the paragraph had no context and seemed a bit out of place, like it had just been tacked on rather than woven into the article in a way that contributed to the story. Try reading the entire article through at once. You'll see that it does a fairly good job of being coherant and keeping your interest up until the Later Life section. But I suppose that part of the reason for that is that the Later Life section is ongoing and doesn't have the benefit of historical hindsight yet. Regardless, I do think it could be better written. Kaldari 05:54, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Seigenthaler and Gore

Here's an article about Gore's investigative reporting days: http://archives.cjr.org/year/93/1/gore.asp 67.170.241.246 03:05, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Recent vandalism attempts

In the past week there have been several sophisticated vandalism attempts on this article. Some of them have been successful at keeping vandalism unnoticed for several days. Please be attentive to all changes to this article, even apparent reversions of vandalism. Kaldari 22:57, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if this is the right page to mention this, but this edit should probably be removed from the page history. — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 01:38, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, that's easier said than done. There are 1,071 revisions to this article, so if you want to remove 1 revision you have to choose the 1,070 that you want to keep... by hand... one at a time. Plus removing that one revision doesn't necessarily remove the vandalism as it may have survived for several versions before being removed. If someone can come up with a good list of versions that need to be deleted (and there are a lot of them for this article), I'll go through the delete/restore process, but it's just not worth the trouble to remove one single revision. Give me half a dozen or so and I'll go ahead and do it. Kaldari 20:51, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Per Wikipedia:Libel, I just went through and removed all of the ones from 2006. There still might be some in the December 2005 range. Hope that helps. Alphachimp 06:04, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

The subject of this article has requested that they not be included in Wikipedia

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe this is true. He never actually requested that his article be deleted, he just complained that it was inaccurate.  YDAM TALK 18:36, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

You are correct. He never said delete the article. nut-meg 22:23, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Can an admin purge this from the edit history ?

http://wiki.eso.workers.dev/w/index.php?title=John_Seigenthaler%2C_Sr.&diff=94456920&oldid=94215560 Megapixie 06:07, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

LOL!! It was there just for 1 minute, i think is not a big deal...--Neo139 20:33, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

not a laughing matter (especially given this articles history), but I don't think it qualifies for oversight by any means (then again, I'm not really familiar with policies relating to that). Bawolff 06:30, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I concur -- nothing libelous there. Mdotley 22:29, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

he shot and killed helpless women and children for personal pleasure. is not libelous? nut-meg 00:17, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Not if it's marked as a joke, nothing about that is in the edit summary, and it's not left on the page. Mdotley 20:11, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Is this Comedy Central or an encyclopedia? nut-meg 22:14, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

The editor deleted it. Quickly. And even when it was created, it was marked to not be taken seriously. And it's the sort of thing that's so over the top, it wouldn't have been believed even if someone did happen to look at the page at the wrong time. It's gone. Relax. Mdotley 06:18, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

The controversy

I find it to be completely hilarious, this Brian Chase is a genius, we need more vandalism like that—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.75.175.125 (talk • contribs) 04:43, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

And people like you will make Wikipedia into a big joke, if it isn't already. You want to trash people, first learn to spell, then start your own little blog. nut-meg 18:48, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

And people like you who make a huge deal out of this stuff is what keeps it popular to vandalize pages. People will do it just because they know it bothers you, and other people who whine about it. Either way, there will always be vandalism, that's the risk of having a wiki. LeviathanMist 19:59, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

If wikipedia is to be taken seriously as a source of information, it is a huge deal. I could care less what vandals think of me. They are pathetic creatures with nothing better to to. It's sad. nut-meg 21:57, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

WP:DENY. ShadowHalo 13:23, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Permitting vandalism like this is what makes wikipedia so unreliable. Since so many here want to ignore it, pretend it's not a problem, and wag fingers at anyone who wants to combat it, this site will never be taken seriously. nut-meg 22:20, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Hurting someone's reputation by lying makes the slanderer a genius? Hitler was a genious-- is that the kind of genius you are referring to?

Sean7phil (talk) 15:49, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

The "sting"

After my first edit to this article, User:Kaldari expressed a strong interest in having me banned, so I am raising an issue on the talk page before I do any more editing. The current version of the article says "As the publisher, Seigenthaler worked with Al Gore, then a reporter, on investigative stories about Nashville city council corruption in the early 1970s." This is not exactly the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. In fact, Gore and Seigenthaler -- according to the article that is presently sourced -- "concocted a sting operation to nail [Morris] Haddox, a young pharmacist widely viewed as an up-and-comer in local black political circles." Haddox was acquitted when he got his day in court, but the trial-by-press, in articles penned by Gore, was extremely damaging to him. So IMO, just saying that Gore and Seigenthaler were investigating corruption is a bit of a whitewash. --Tsunami Butler 21:19, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The Morris Haddox story is only tangentally related to Seigenthaler. I don't see any reason to delve into it in this article. The sentence you're talking about is basically just a lead-in to Seigenthaler's relationship to Gore's political career, which is much more notable. Why should we elaborate on that one story when there are so many more important stories that Seigenthaler worked on directly that we barely mention here? It seems to me that the only reason you want to focus on it is that that particular story can be easily skewed into painting Gore and Seigenthaler as racists, although such accusations are obviously rediculous (as Seigenthaler was a significant Civil Rights activist). You should also know that the author of the article currently cited about the Morris Haddox story, E. Thomas Wood (who is probably one of the most well-respected historians in Nashville) is one of the editors of this article. I'm sure he is more qualified than any of us to know if that story was important to Seigenthaler's career and so far he hasn't mentioned anything about it. Personally, I think that paragraph is fine as it is, and I believe your interpretation of the Haddox story is heavily skewed by the right-wing anti-Gore news blog WorldNetDaily. Not that it really matters, but Haddox basically escaped going to jail through legal loopholes. The reason his reputation was ruined is because his illegal activities were exposed to the public, not because of a fictional racist smear campaign. Anyway, I think I've spent enough time feeding the troll. If you want to pick on Gore (as I doubt you actually care about Seigenthaler), you'll do better to try the Al Gore article. Kaldari 23:31, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The story is unfortunately highly reminiscent of too many others, where politicians were targeted for "sting" operations because of ties to traditional Democratic constituencies -- I'm thinking ABSCAM, for example, or Marion Barry. I am therefore hesistant to brush it under the rug. The people of set these things up always say "but he was probably guilty, anyway." --Tsunami Butler 23:57, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Move protection

Even if the page doesn't require semi-protection, it should be at least move protected. There's no legitimate reason why the article would be moved, and there have been two vandalistic moves. Andjam 02:16, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

A valid concern. The article is now fully protected against moves. Just for shits and giggles, I move-protected this page as well. EVula // talk // ☯ // 02:25, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Subject is not notable; let's eliminate the page

Why such a detailed bio for such an ordinary person? Let's get rid of the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TCO (talk • contribs) 14:47, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

This isn't a bad thing. Wikipedia strives to be a full source of all information, and to be frank, the more the better (as long as it doesn't become too long and unmanageable - not the case here). MattWT (talk) 09:07, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

An absurd suggestion. If you really feel that way go through the process of nominating the article for deletion. You'll find that maybe just because you haven't heard of someone doesn't mean they are not notable. nut-meg (talk) 12:35, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

He meets the notability guidelines. Read the first paragraph.— Ѕandahl 02:02, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

What was the libelous text?

I'm curious, where is the edit which bashed John Seigenthaler?70.65.245.94 (talk) 20:01, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The revisions containing the libelous text have been deleted, see Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-12-05/Seigenthaler and [1]. Regards, HaeB (talk) 20:18, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Damn, that was quick, thanks.--70.65.245.94 (talk) 21:18, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

GA Reassessment

This discussion is transcluded from Talk:John Seigenthaler/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the reassessment.

As part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles' Project quality task force, all old good articles are being re-reviewed to ensure that they meet current good article criteria (as detailed at WP:WIAGA.) I have determined that this one definitely does not; it was probably only nom'd in response to the who bio incident, but speaking of shoddy, unverified content...

• All the following content is unsourced, or else its source is unclear.
  • Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Seigenthaler is the oldest of eight siblings. He attended Father Ryan High School and served in the U.S. Air Force from 1946 to 1949. After leaving the service, Seigenthaler was hired at The Tennessean.
  • While covering a story in the mid-1950s, Seigenthaler met singer Dolores Watson. Giving up dreams of a musical career, Watson married Seigenthaler in 1955, and later gave birth to the couple's only child, John Michael Seigenthaler, who went on to become an anchor with NBC News. The elder Seigenthaler's brother, Thomas Seigenthaler, was the founder of Seigenthaler Public Relations.
  • Those skills weren't immediately evident, (he was lectured by an editor about his first article), but he was able to establish himself on the staff among heavy competition that included future standout journalists David Halberstam and Tom Wicker.
  • He first gained prominence in November 1953 when he tracked down the former Thomas C. Buntin and his wife.
  • Frustrated by the leadership of Tennessean publisher Silliman Evans, Jr., Seigenthaler resigned in 1960 to serve as an administrative assistant to incoming Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. On April 21, 1961, Seigenthaler was the only other Justice Department figure to witness a meeting between Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Seigenthaler's friendship with Kennedy became one of the focal points of Jimmy Hoffa's bid to shift his jury tampering trial from Nashville. Citing "one-sided, defamatory" coverage from the newspaper, Hoffa's lawyers were able to get Seigenthaler to admit he personally wanted Hoffa convicted. However, the journalist noted that he hadn't conveyed those sentiments to his reporters. Hoffa's lawyers gained a minor victory when the trial was moved to Chattanooga in a change of venue, but Hoffa was nonetheless convicted in 1964 after a 45-day trial.
  • The following year, Seigenthaler led a fight for access to the Tennessee state senate chamber in Nashville after a resolution was passed revoking the floor privileges of Tennessean reporter Bill Kovach. The action came after Kovach had refused to leave a committee hearing following a call for executive session.
  • In December 1966, Seigenthaler and Richard Goodwin represented the Kennedy family when controversy developed about historian William Manchester's book about the John F. Kennedy assassination, The Death of a President. Seigenthaler had read an early version of the book, which led to Jacqueline Kennedy threatening a lawsuit over inaccurate and private statements in the publication.
  • Moments after a victory in the California primary, Kennedy was shot by an assassin and died on June 6, 1968. Seigenthaler would serve as one of the pallbearers at his funeral, and later co-edited the book An Honorable Profession: A Tribute to Robert F. Kennedy.
  • Remaining focused on the cause of civil rights, Seigenthaler then supported Tennessee Bishop Joseph Aloysius Durick in 1969 during the latter's contentious fight to end segregation, a stance that outraged many in the community who still believed in the concept.
  • On February 8, 1973, Seigenthaler was promoted to publisher of the Tennessean, after Amon Carter Evans was named president of Tennessean Newspaper, Inc.
  • In February 1976, Seigenthaler contacted Gore at home to inform him that U.S. Representative Joe L. Evins was not running for re-election. Gore decided to resign from the paper and drop out of Vanderbilt University Law School, beginning his political career by entering the race for Tennessee's 4th congressional district, a seat previously held by Albert Gore, Sr., his father.
  • Seigenthaler announced his retirement in December 1991 from The Tennessean, just months after he made a similar announcement concerning his tenure at USA Today.
  • Seigenthaler currently hosts a book review program on Nashville public television station WNPT, called A Word on Words, and chairs the selection committees for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation's Profiles in Courage Award and the RFK Memorial's Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.
• Problems with tone and weasel/POV wording, examples including "The bizarre case". The entire thing comes off as a bit of a puff piece, and I think some of the extraneous "heroic" details (like saving a guy from suicide) could probably be lost.
• The article suffers from a lack of focus, compounded by one or two-sentence groupings that do not adequately convey ideas. These need to be fleshed out into real full-sized paragraphs, merged together, or cut.
• How does File:Young seigenthaler.jpg meet WP:NFCC? Currently it does not even have a fair use rationale as required.
  • It does have a fair use rationale and the rationale explains how it meets WP:NFCC. Are you looking at a different image? Kaldari (talk) 00:39, 7 December 2009 (UTC)
    • Ah, missed it somehow. Not sure it's still that strong, considering it can be replaced by free images... Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 18:07, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

I am placing the article on hold for one week pending improvements. Keep me appraised of development or ask questions here on this page. Thanks, Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 21:18, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

• The main problem with this article is that many of the most notable things about Seigenthaler are barely discussed and the focus is mostly on his early years in the newspaper business. His work on first amendment issues is extensive, for example, and we barely mention anything about it. Kaldari (talk) 00:39, 7 December 2009 (UTC)
  • That could be an issue too, but I have no knowledge of Seigenthaler beyond the wiki-fracas. If you think comprehensiveness is a concern, then it is. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 18:07, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, since not much got done in the time period allotted, I'm just going to delist now. I'll try and strip out the unsourced statements above when I have time; to anyone who wants to renominate it at WP:GAN, I would recommend addressing the above issues. Comments, take it to my talk page. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 14:34, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Freedom Forum

The Freedom Forum webpage says that it was founded by Al Heuhart, not John. He should not be given credit. http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=4020 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.7.86.120 (talk) 18:30, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

It looks like Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center, no the Freedom Forum. I think this has been corrected in the article. Kaldari (talk) 17:36, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Reminder

"After the incident, Wikipedia took steps to prevent a recurrence, including barring unregistered users from creating new pages." That is only true at least for the English version. Sukarnobhumibol (talk) 09:40, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Does the Wikipedia controversy really belong here?

It was a significant event in the History of Wikipedia, that's true, and is rightly mentioned in that article. But was it a significant event in the life of John Seigenthaler? I doubt it. We don't normally mention in a biography article that 'the subject has had bad things written about them on the Internet'. If the defamatory text had appeared in any website other than Wikipedia, would it even be mentioned here? Robofish (talk) 13:02, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Probably not. I've removed it from the hatlinks for now. If no one objects, I'll change the "Wikipedia controversy" section to a See Also link. Do other people agree that it's finally time to end the navel-gazing? Kaldari (talk) 17:07, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

The case brought him on national TV and in a documentary, now also in a book: "one of the most infamous tales of digital assassination - the 2005 Wikipedia attack on journalist John Seigenthaler" [2] That event is beyond Wikipedia, and I find it noteworthy in the Seigenthaler biography. — fnielsen (talk) 03:36, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

What's Seigenthaler's Role in the Leo Frank Posthumous Pardon?

What is John Seigenthaler's role in the Alonzo Mann Affair and the Leo Frank exoneration movement leading to Posthumous Pardon of Leo Frank?Carmelmount (talk) 18:46, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

This sentence is POV and try to pretty up the truth, and He didn't say this.

In May 2005, an anonymous user created a five-sentence Wikipedia article about Seigenthaler that contained false and defamatory content.

Change to

In May 2005, a Wikipedia article was created about Seigenthaler that contained false and defamatory content.

Trying to add "Five-sentence" tries to make it appear like it wasn't a big deal.

Trying to add "an anonymous user" tries to make it appear like it wasn't a Wikipedia contributor "anonymous user are contributor like Login in Anonymous user".

Come on Editor, you guys should be better then this. Just because you don't like something or believe in it, doesn't give you the right to spin it, to fit the way you want.

His whole incident highlights a potential problem for Wikipedia that the fonder learned from and solve, don't attempt to pretty it up, or devalue it.

Sound day today for Wikipedia for me. I came here for one article, got mad at the spin, did more research, seen more, and lost a lot of trust and confidence SMH....

Hopefully thing improve on wikipedia "if not hopefully something destroys it". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.203.36.3 (talk) 09:22, 30 December 2012 (UTC) \

Consistency

Please spell Seigenthaler correctly in the death section. Especially when it is spelled right up top. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jmlbs697 (talk • contribs) 00:46, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

 Fixed by Kaldari with this edit. — Wyliepedia 11:58, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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Later life section and ostensible controversy described therein

This section ties Seigenthaler to a (somewhat) compromised criminal investigation of his friend, Sheriff "Fate" Thomas of Nashville. The FBI claimed that Thomas was tipped off before they intended. Nothing is mentioned directly connecting Seigenthaler to the tip-off. I'm removing all reference to this event—as it stands it's connecting Mr. Seigenthaler to the botched investigation by weaselly innuendo. The reference is a news article behind a paywall, and the editor who inserted the info hasn't been active since 2006. Please contact me at my Talk page if you disagree. Tapered (talk) 07:07, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

I agree with the removal. Dr. K. 07:49, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

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Semi-protection change

I noticed on Seigenthaler's wiki page, it says "this article is semi-protected to promote compliance with the policy on biographies of living people". The guy's been dead for over five years now. I don't mind the article being semi-protected, I'm not saying get rid of it, but I think it would be better to just change it to "this article is semi-protected" or "this article is semi-protected due to vandalism" instead. Not mad, just something that I think needs to be changed for accuracy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheNamelessIndividual (talk • contribs) 17:17, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

"Seigenthaler" vs "Siegenthaler"

I'm just curious: why is his name spelled "Seigenthaler"? The proper German spelling is "Siegenthaler" whereas "ei" is actually pronounced more like an English "y" rather than an "ee" sound -- i.e. "zy-g'ntaler". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.123.105.105 (talk) 03:44, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

Probably, one of his parents, grand-parents, or grand-parents or so on moved to America. And there, people pronounce the spelling as they pronounce it, which is different than in Germany. And you have other things to do then correcting people on pronouncing your name. In fact, you can't even teach the locals. And even if you cared, your children and grand-children simply won't. In the end, you must only know that these sounds, whatever they are, mean you. That's the point of a name. -- Martin Gühmann (talk) 23:03, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 June 2022

Add external link to YouTube video "Journalists: Did You Hear What I Said?" at the Charlie Dean Archives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edw6wThzTXg The film was produced by The Newspaper Fund, Inc. in 1966 and shows reporter Frank Ritter writing a series of stories in The Nashville Tennessean about the problem of children dropping out of school. John Seigenthaler is closely involved in developing these stories. Radbond (talk) 01:22, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

 Not done: Per policy, we do not include external links to content only tangentially related to the subject at hand. HouseBlaster^talk 01:00, 6 July 2022 (UTC)