Talk:Aubrey McClendon

Removal of Court Filing
Someone removed a court filing PDF from the Commons area on grounds that there was no media license. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a publicly-available court filing. I will be adding it back on those grounds. If you would like to discuss or remove, let discuss on this page before removing it from the Commons. Creativejuice (talk) 15:09, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Info on right-side box
There are some items in the right-side box that I will be removing as they violate Wikipedia's rules. For example, the latitude and longitude of his home is a violation of WP: Personal Information. Other information, “Influencers” violates WP: NOR as there’s not a reliable source to indicate this person was an influencer. None of the other information is properly sourced and it needs to be so before being included on this page. For example, the board member info is not accurate as Bronco Drilling is no longer a company. Creativejuice (talk) 17:58, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Chairman fact
An editor prematurely wrote "former chairman" in this entry, but according to a press release issued by Chesapeake on May 1, 2012, Aubrey will no longer be chairman of the board once a new one is appointed. Here's an excerpt: "The Board of Directors will name an independent, Non-Executive Chairman in the near future. ... Upon the appointment of a Non-Executive Chairman, Mr. McClendon will relinquish the position of Chairman and continue as Chief Executive Officer." Once this is official, this change can be made. Creativejuice (talk) 12:32, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

Have removed the citation from the Wall Street Journal as it states that McClendon was removed from his chairman position, when according to the company's official press release, he voluntarily relinquished his position.--Writer1502 (talk) 19:42, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Early life and education
I removed the phrase that included the area of Oklahoma City where McClendon resides as it WP:IINFO and doesn't merit inclusion in an encyclopedia. It is also not verifiable and is based on opinion, not fact. Just stating Oklahoma City is more clear and factual. Creativejuice (talk) 02:27, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

Hedge fund
Regarding the hedge fund, the sources state that McClendon ran it. If Creativejuice says that's inaccurate, I'm guessing that's based on inside knowledge is probably correct. However, information on Wikipedia has to be based on published third-party sources. Oddly, that can sometimes result in bad information, and this may be one of those cases. The standard isn't whether something is true or false, it's whether something is verifiable by a reliable source. It's no different from a courtroom. We have to go on the evidence, even if because of its limitations, it leads us to the wrong result. If doubt can be cast on the veracity of the sources, or if other more reliable sources state that McClendon didn't run the fund, then we can change it. Chicken Wing (talk) 02:38, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Proposing new draft
Hi there! I'm looking to find some editors to help me make some changes to improve this article. I'm looking to discuss changes here rather than making the edits myself as I have a conflict of interest since I've written this article on behalf of Aubrey McClendon, as a paid consultant.

As you may have noticed, there are some issues with the current article, not least:
 * The introduction is overly detailed and cluttered with glowing quotes, including one which doesn't really stand up when you look at the full quote in the source (the Carl Icahn quote, which in full is, "He's sort of a genius, but I think Aubrey might not have realized heretofore how badly shareholders want to see the company deleveraged.")
 * Material is not well organized within sections:
 * Some details in Early life and education are not related to his early life, and would fit more within a Personal life section
 * Details on his role at Chesapeake are spread about through the rest of the article rather than all being kept together in context
 * The Other interests section is a mish-mash of information on his philanthropic activities, business activities and other details
 * The section for Chesapeake Energy Corporation has spotty sourcing:
 * Some information is entirely unsourced
 * Some details lack WP:RS sources
 * There are claims not supported by the existing sources. For example, the mention that McClendon, "led the company to hold significant positions in the nation’s largest shale gas plays, the discovery of which has radically changed estimates of the U.S. supply of natural gas and reduced natural gas prices by 50% to American consumers since 2008, while providing a daily economic stimulus to the U.S. economy of approximately $300 million"
 * Also within the Chesapeake section, and elsewhere in the article, material is written in a hyperbolic style that is inappropriate per WP:PROMO
 * There is little information on his latest company, American Energy Partners, other than a single uncited sentence in the lead and a mention at the end of the Chesapeake Energy Corporation section, in the context of a legal dispute with Chesapeake
 * The discussion of the recent legal dispute with Chesapeake does not meet with WP:NPOV as the article includes only the claims against Mr. McClendon and does not mention his response, despite this being covered in reliable sources

To address all these concerns and to flesh out some areas of Mr. McClendon's career and life that hadn't been fully discussed in the article, I've put together a full new draft. If editors would prefer to look at this section-by-section or discuss individual changes, instead, I'm absolutely open to that, too. For now, I'll link to the draft in my user space, here so that folks can take a look and see what they think:
 * User:16912_Rhiannon/Aubrey_McClendon

In brief, in my suggested draft, I'm proposing the following changes:
 * Streamlining the introduction to focus on his main roles and achievements, removing the quotes and mention of him as the highest paid CEO in 2008 (instead, where appropriate, I've included these in the relevant section in context)
 * Adding more information on his childhood and background to the Early life and education section
 * Re-organizing the article into a more standardized structure for biographical articles, moving all his business activities under one main heading Business career, separated by subheadings for Chesapeake Energy Corporation, American Energy Partners, Natural gas advocacy and Business ventures and investments
 * Incorporating the information on the Saugatuck Township development and Oklahoma City Thunder into the Business ventures and investments section, and rewording each to ensure they give a clear, accurate summary focusing on Mr. McClendon's involvement
 * Creating new sections for Philanthropy, community and political involvement, Honors and awards, and Personal life and interests under which I've placed existing information from the article and added some details that had coverage in secondary sources but are not currently included in the article
 * Rewriting where needed and adding new sources to ensure that the details are supported by reliable sources and are neutrally, non-promotionally worded

Can anyone take a look and offer feedback? I'm hoping that editors will be able to make the proposed changes in the live article, if they look appropriate. While drafting up proposed changes to the article, Mr. McClendon has provided input and reviewed drafts, but I have aimed throughout to keep these suggested updates to the article objective and neutral. As always, I'd love to hear feedback from anyone! Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 22:27, 27 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I've reviewed your draft. I think it is acceptable, except for the Chesapeake Energy Corporation section, which appears to have a layer of hype blanketing it. The article is about the man, not the corporation, and while the corporation should of course be mentioned, I think the level of detail and aggrandizement is unwarranted. If you can work on that, I'm happy to make the changes. Wilipino (talk) 17:50, 31 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi Wilipino, thanks so much for taking a look at the draft, much appreciated. Regarding the section on Chesapeake, I definitely don't mean for that section to be blanketed in hype! My intention was to include details about the company that give context to the reported details of Mr. McClendon's recognition as CEO and salary. Ie. showing that the company had significant growth and success, which is why he had such a high salary in 2008 and why he was the subject of profiles in outlets like Forbes. Having said that, are there any specific details you have in mind that you feel are too detailed and promotional for Chesapeake? I would certainly be open to trimming out some details. Thanks again, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 21:11, 1 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi Rhiannon 16912, Thanks for your message. I would like to help. I apologize for the delay in responding, but I have been preoccupied with some other issues requiring my urgent attention . Yes, I am still actively working on the WP:Oklahoma. Since receiving your request, I have reviewed both your posted article and the draft revision, which I think is a significant improvement. Since I knew almost nothing about the subject of the article, I thought it worth while until I had familiarized myself with the topic. I hope to respond with some helpful comments this weekend. Bruin2 (talk) 05:07, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Hey Bruin2, thanks so much for coming to take a look at this! Sounds good about leaving some comments this weekend, looking forward to your feedback. Do let me know if anything isn't clear or if you have any questions. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 21:16, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
 * ✅ Many thanks to Wilipino, Bruin2 and Ɱ for their reviews of the draft (see discussion here), and to Ɱ for taking it live. I really appreciate each of you for being so thorough. Now the draft is live I've spotted a tiny typo, if anyone has a sec: in Business ventures and investments there's a line that reads "to a the Western Michigan Land Conservancy" and that "a" is a typo that can be cut. Obviously nothing major and likely to be caught by someone copy-editing later, so I'm happy to close my edit request here and thank you all again so much! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 13:21, 16 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Done. It's been my pleasure to help.-- ɱ    (talk  ·  vbm)  13:54, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

Help correcting inaccuracy
Hi to anyone watching this page, as you can see from the discussion above, I previously worked on behalf of Mr. McClendon to offer a new draft for this article which was reviewed, edited and taken live during 2015. As part of my work with Beutler Ink, I am consulting for the PR firm, Saxum Communications, which had a long standing relationship with Mr. McClendon. In that capacity, I have a request to address an inaccurate statement in the Death section of the article:

The section currently includes a statement that Mr. McClendon was due to "turn himself in" to the court shortly after the crash had happened. While this information was mentioned by the police following the accident, it is not actually correct. The Justice Department later refuted this information. Per The Oklahoman: "Bob Troester, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in Oklahoma City, said reports that McClendon was on his way to the courthouse when the crash happened were incorrect. He said there were no scheduled arraignments or meetings with McClendon on Wednesday. "Nothing had been set," Troester said. "I saw those reports and was surprised.""

Based on this, I would like to request that either the incorrect statement be removed, OR that it be replaced as follows:
 * Current: Less than two hours later, he was due to turn himself in at court.
 * Proposed: A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in Oklahoma City disputed initial reports that McClendon was en route to the courthouse when the crash occurred. He confirmed that no arraignments or meetings were scheduled with McClendon for that day.
 * Citation to support:

As I do have a conflict of interest here, I will not make any edits to the article and hope that someone can take a look at this and make the most appropriate update. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 14:00, 5 March 2016 (UTC)


 * ✅. Thank you. It looks like the original citation source had corrected their article also. Thank you also for such a well-formatted and complete edit request. -- &#124;  Uncle Milty  &#124;  talk  &#124;  14:19, 5 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Uncle Milty, appreciate you making this correction so quickly. Just to let you know, it looks like there's a small formatting related typo in the new sentence, in case you're able to pop in there and adjust. Thanks again. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI)  01:00, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Oops, got it. Thanks. -- &#124;  Uncle Milty  &#124;  talk  &#124;  01:11, 7 March 2016 (UTC)