Talk:Byron Cook (politician)

Comments moved here from User talk:JohnCD
To: JohnCD From: Honest Abe2016 (talk) 16:27, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

This is very frustrating... I am not saying anything NEGATIVE or incorrect about Mr Cook, only correcting and it appears that on wikipedia it was easier for the hackers to smear Mr Cook's than it is for him to protect his biography and public service reputation... Again, Mr Cook's wikipedia page has been hacked with libelous and false attack information by his political enemies.

I am not attempting an "Edit war" only to correct information.

So, I will attempt to go through all of Mr Cook's concerns --- point by point below:

1. Why does the phrase "politician" have to be used in the page title and opening paragraph? This was put on the wikipedia page with the purpose of being disparaging title. For example, other elected members of the Texas House of Representative seem to have just their name as their wikipedia page title: Why discriminate against "Byron Cook" by not allowing him to delete the phrase "politician?" Why make Cook a politician and NOT other individuals who serve in the EXACT SAME PUBLIC OFFICE of State Representative?

2. In the Bio Box to the right of the copy, the "Preceded by" line is not accurate.... legislative districts are redrawn every ten years.... and Mr Cook's current district (Texas House District 8) has 4 counties that have EACH had DIFFERENT preceding "State Representatives" representing them.... the truth is, there is not a "Preceding" elected official who has represented the legislative district as currently drawn (with Anderson, Freestone, Hill and Navarro Counties), to imply such is FALSE and misleading.

3. Under "Business and ranching" why does the phrase "now defunct" have to be in the sentence, this is a derogatory reference to a past business venture? It is a FACT that Mr Cook and his father created "Tradewest" and in fact, Wikipedia even has a page detailing the successes of this company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradewest

4. "Charges against Ken Paxton" is a libelous EDIT added to Cook's wikipedia page... it is also NOT germane to Cook's bio.... The phony citation to the NYTimes is also incorrect in that it grossly misstates the article about an ON-GOING criminal investigation of the indicted Texas Attorney General .... a case in which state investigators through subpoena called upon Mr Cook to testify in a closed door grand jury  as to his being the VICTIM of a possible criminal action by Mr Paxton..... therefore, this HACKED edit (the entire paragraph) should be immediately removed as the criminal investigators on this case and State law does NOT allow a witness before a grand jury to discuss what the grand jury's questions. Here again, Mr Cook was a VICTIM and is not a "complainant" in this ongoing criminal investigation of Mr Paxton.

5. In "Service in the Texas House of Representatives" ..... the first paragraph is accurate, but HACKERS added the "Cook legislative ratings by policy groups"... these are all 501c4 corporations (secretly funded political entities) that are ENEMIES of Mr Cook who have all FALSELY attacked him. They are not legitimate or accepted "policy groups".... there claims are ALL contrived and disputed by other policy groups..... therefore, these are NOT fact based ratings, but subjective attack ratings. They need to be removed from Cook's bio as they are biased and libelous subjective political attacks, not REAL fact based policy ratings. Wikipedia is not supposed to be a place for bad behavior and his is gross bad behavior by the hackers who put this up for the sole purpose of political assassination and embarrassment through libelous assessments of their own making. For example, Texas Right to Life has been exposed in press as falsifying ratings by the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops, Texas Baptist Conference, Texas Alliance for Life, Texans for Life, and others.... and the other Groups (Empower Texans, Young Conservatives and Eagle Form) have all been exposed by the Texas press for doing cooked or phony ratings..... If these groups want to do their own websites and wikipedia pages, then go for it.... but their libelous attacks do violate wikipedia page policy because they are NOT FACT based ratings.

6. In "Policy and leadership".... come on now--- how is the phrase "Cook claims a commitment" a phrase acceptable to Wikipedia this is a an obvious ATTACK on Cook not substantiated by any of the Wikipedia standards, why are you refusing to delete this phrase when it violates your own standards of accuracy??? This should be deleted immediately. and why did you allow the HACKERS to put this up in the first place??????

7. Also, under "Policy and leadership" I also attempted to UPDATE Cook's leadership awards in my EDIT but you delete them.... why? Why is Cook being prevented from listing his RECENT leadership awards such as "2015 Champion for Life Award."?????

8. In the sub-headline captions of "Illegal immigration" and "Unions" these are BOTH FALSE and subjective opinions of Cook's enemies, but claims are interpretation by Cook's enemies that distort actual legislative voting records and actual legislative language.... as such they violate the Wikipedia standards and should be removed immediately--- how the HACKERS got away with this is a terrible thing, but regardless, this kind of innuendo should NOT on Cook's page because it is NOT TRUE.

9. In the "Recognition" paragraph, I attempted to put Cook's current endorsements and this EDIT was rejected why? Cook is entitled to list his current endorsements.

10. In "Reelection in 2016" the likely guilty HACKER parties of "Empower Texans" and "Texas Right to Life" expose their fingerprints on their attack of Mr Cook, this paragraph is 100% contrived from their libelous and sour grapes perspective and needs to be removed immediately.... the subjectivity of the comments in this text are deplorable, FALSE and non-germane to the biography of Mr Cook.... additionally, this paragraph also SMEARS Texas House Speaker Joe Straus with the vicious lies of these political groups which is further in violation of wikipedia's policies ..... this entire paragraph should be removed.

11. To be consistent, these hackers are duping the Wikipedia system and are the ones at "WAR" with wikipedia, not Byron Cook who is trying to prevent false and libelous attacks on himself, his family and is record.

Again, there is the EDITED Wikipedia context I request be made (see below) and I request that since Mr Cook's wikipedia page has been viciously HACKED on multiple occasions that you need to give his page whatever protection is available to keep the HACKERS from repeating their deceit.....

Thanks Honest Abe2016 (talk) 16:27, 10 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I'll see if I can't answer your questions...
 * 1. "Why does the phrase "politician" have to be used in the page title and opening paragraph?" Because he isn't the only Byron Cook with an article on Wikipedia, and there has to be some way to differentiate them. "Politician" is a fact, not a derogatory word.
 * 2. "In the Bio Box to the right of the copy, the "Preceded by" line is not accurate...." Well, someone preceded him in whatever constituted this district in the past. Why is this such a problem?
 * 3. "Under "Business and ranching" why does the phrase "now defunct" have to be in the sentence..." Because the business no longer exists. It would be wrong to leave people with the impression that it does still exist.
 * 4. "In "Service in the Texas House of Representatives" ..... the first paragraph is accurate, but HACKERS added the "Cook legislative ratings by policy groups..." There are no "hackers" here getting away with changing anything without following Wikipedia guidelines.
 * 5. "Here again, Mr Cook was a VICTIM and is not a "complainant" in this ongoing criminal investigation of Mr Paxton." Are you saying that Cook is not a litigant in these proceedings?
 * 6. "how is the phrase "Cook claims a commitment" a phrase acceptable to Wikipedia..." Because it is a fact, in this case supported by reliable references.
 * 7. "Why is Cook being prevented from listing his RECENT leadership awards such as "2015 Champion for Life Award."?????" Because there is only so much space for things like this.
 * 8. "In the sub-headline captions of "Illegal immigration" and "Unions" these are BOTH FALSE and subjective opinions of Cook's enemies" I agree and have removed the POV statements.
 * 9. "In the "Recognition" paragraph, I attempted to put Cook's current endorsements" I can't find that edit, as all I see are large deletions by you.
 * 10. "In "Reelection in 2016" the likely guilty HACKER parties of "Empower Texans" and "Texas Right to Life" expose their fingerprints on their attack of Mr Cook" No, these are not "hacker parties", they are valid organizations. None of their "attacks" of Cook are in this article.
 * 11. "To be consistent, these hackers..." Once again, there are no "hackers" getting away with anything here.
 * Quite frankly, we favor neutral edits to Wikipedia articles. You aren't really demonstrating a neutral POV in these edits or this discussion. -- &#124;  Uncle Milty  &#124;  talk  &#124;  21:06, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Proposed draft article (by, moved from User talk:JohnCD and tidied up)
(Infobox as in present article with addition of spouse and children)

Byron Cook (born April 8, 1954) is a businessman, rancher, and Republican State Representative from Corsicana, Texas. He represents Texas House District 8 which includes Anderson, Freestone, Hill and Navarro counties.

Family background
Cook and his brothers moved with their parents from Abilene to Corsicana in 1967. He graduated from local public schools and holds an associate degree from Navarro College. Today, Cook and his wife, Kay, live in Corsicana and have two daughters and two grandchildren. Both of their daughters are graduates of Texas A&M University. Their older daughter is married to a veteran of the United States Army who served in the Iraq Warand in Afghanistan, with whom she has two children.

Business and ranching
Cook's father, the late Leland P. Cook, was the former circulation manager for the Corsicana Daily Sun. Leland left the newspaper to start a family business. Later, he and Cook founded Tradewest, a video game company and licensee of several of Nintendo’s most popular video games such as Double Dragon, Battletoads, and Super Off Road. Today, Cook continues an interest in diversified businesses and in ranching.

Service in the Texas House of Representatives
Cook is the chairman of the Texas House State Affairs Committee and as a member of the Texas House Calendars Committee. He is also a member of the Texas House Republican Caucus and Texas Conservative Coalition. Cook has also served in past legislative sessions as Chairman of the Texas House Committees on Civil Practices and the Committee on Environmental Regulation; and as a member of the Texas Sunset Commission.

Leadership Awards and Endorsements
Cook is a recipient of numerous legislative leadership awards including the 2015 Champion for Life Award, the 2014 "True Texas (Taxpayer) Hero Award" from Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, a Patient Advocacy Award by the Texas Medical Association and a Rural Government Advocacy Award by the Texas Municipal League. In 2007, Cook was named by Texas Monthly magazine as one of the “Top Ten” legislators in Texas. In 2010, Cook was recognized for his leadership on behalf of the Republican Party of Texas with its “Texas House Debt-Busters” program. Prior to serving in the legislature, Cook served as the president of his local Rotary International and was a co-recipient of the Corsicana Chamber of Commerce Arthur J. Keeney Community Service Award. Organizations endorsing Cook in 2016 re-election include the Associated Republicans of Texas, NRA, Texas State Association of Fire Fighters, Texas Farm Bureau, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the Texas State Rifle Association, Texas Alliance for Life, Texans for Life, Texas State Teachers Association, Texas Classroom Teachers Association, Texas Association of Business, Texas Medical Association, Texas Association of Realtors, Texas Public Employees Association, Texas Civil Justice League, Rural Friends of Electric Cooperatives. (Partial Listing of endorsements)

(Categories as in the present article)

Comments about proposed draft
The problem with this version—and one of the reasons I reverted it when it showed up as the article text—is that it is completely devoid of reliable sources. Wikipedia's Verifiability policy requires articles to cite sources. When the predecessor version had sources like the New York Times cited, it seemed an obvious step back to go to this version.

That said, some of these changes could be incorporated if they can be backed up by sources. Preferably, these should be sources independent of Cook—i.e., not his website. Newspapers and magazines are preferred as sources. —C.Fred (talk) 21:25, 10 March 2016 (UTC)