Talk:Eric Newton

message: Just so there is some clarity about Mr. Newton's involvement in the John Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy, he has complained about Wikipedia:
:"They say anyone can edit it. That is not true. I couldn't."  
It would have been more accurate to say he could and did edit it, but all his edits prior to that article were in violation of Wikipedia policies. His first violation involved copyright infringement. He lifted a copyrighted bio verbatim from the Freedom Forum.
The Freedom Forum bio of Seigenthaler  links to his official biography on the First Amendment Center site.  That site has a very clear copyright policy:
:"Copyright the First Amendment Center. The text and images on this Web site are copyrighted and may not be reposted, republished, copied or reproduced without permission. [...] Although you cannot copy the text and repost or reproduce it elsewhere, you may link to any page on this site without asking permission." 
Newton (or someone claiming to be him) then returned in December and added edits stating Newton was the anonymous editor who had violated copyright, though there was no published source for this claim. This is another Wikipedia violation, this time against the No Original Research policy. Now that he has published the January 2006 Sun-Sentinel piece quoted above, there's a verifiable source, and Newton's name can be included.
Newton and like-minded journalists are all up in arms about Wikipedia, but I am sure they've run the occasional "we regret the error" retraction. Pranks can happen at "professional" newspapers, in clear violations of their policies.  Journalists and Wikipedians are not perfect, but there are policies in place to reduce pranks and errors.
Bottom line: in attempting to fix one violation, Newton violated several other Wikipedia policies, and then he complained about it in print. 
Just wanted to expand here on what should be a fairly minor point in Newton's biography. Jokestress 18:03, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Newton violated multiple Wikipedia policies 

message: Per today's comment by BabuBhatt, I have linked to the abstract of the Newton article on sun-sentinel.com. Interestingly, the fact that Newton's article is no longer available free to the public exemplifies a major reason why Wikipedia was created in the first place. Some of us feel information should be available to everyone for free and indefinitely, rather than controlled by a half dozen media conglomerates. Jokestress 19:27, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Newton's article about Wikipedia has expired 

message: I want to address the recent edit by User:63.119.246.13 on 22:59, 30 January 2006, which had this comment:
:Phrasing important. 1) No court has convicted Newton of the crime of copyright infringement. 2) Wales deletion of history log removed the source for "unsourced edits."
Regarding #1: I'll stick an "alleged" in there regarding the copyright violation. 
Regarding #2: The unsourced edits occurred in December and were the main topic of Newton's Sun-Sentinel article. User:BrokenSegue removed Newton's edits crediting himself as the editor who committed the copyright violation. Wikipedia requires sources for statements of that type, and that had not appeared in a published source where it could be verified. Hence, Newton's edits, even if first-hand reports, violated No Original Research. 
Because Newton's Sun-Sentinel article reflected a lack of understanding regarding fundamental Wikipedia policies and procedures, it's important to make clear that his complaints regarding #2 were not about the deletion log in September, but about his attempt to insert unverified original research about himself in December, in direct violation of Wikipedia policy. Jokestress 23:27, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unsourced edits 

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thread_title:  External links modified (January 2018)