Talk:Elizabeth Vargas/Archive 1

Factual Inaccuracies
User:Marine 69-71, unless you can provide credible sources to support your treatment of my recent edits as "vandalism", my edits should stand. In support of my corrections:


 * According to IMDb and an interview with Hispanic Magazine, Vargas was born in Paterson, New Jersey, not on a military base in Japan. As I write this, you seem to have changed your mind and conceded this point after all.


 * Again, according to the aforementioned Hispanic Magazine article, it was Vargas' grandfather, not father, who was actually from Puerto Rico. This makes Elizabeth a second generation American of Puerto Rican descent, meaning her father is a first generation American of Puerto Rican descent and not simply "Puerto Rican" as the wiki article states (an assertion which is at best misleading, at worst factually incorrect).


 * From the same article, Vargas' ethnicity (irrespective of nationality) on her mother's side is stated to be Irish, German and Swedish. I could not locate any sources to further substantiate her mother's "Irish-American" heritage as narrowly asserted in the wiki article; however it seems at least as fair to label her mother "Irish-American" as it does to label her father "Puerto Rican-American", given that the Hispanic Magazine article also explicitly establishes Vargas' father's ethnicity as Spanish and Italian. As such, I believe it was justifiable for me to include a reference under "See Also" to List of Irish-Americans. Whatever the reasoning you are using to justify the removal of that reference, it must also necessarily apply to the removal of the List of famous Puerto Ricans reference, otherwise the reasoning is inconsistent and biased. An Hispanic surname doesn't magically make Vargas of 100% Puerto Rican descent.

Hello 24.206.117.92, first of all I would like to thank you for pointing out that Vargas was born in Paterson, New Jersey.

Second, as for your "factually incorrect statement" I will state my source from an interview with Univision: Elizabeth Vargas, where Vargas herself states that her Puerto Rican father was a Colonel and her mother is Irish-American. As Stated by Vargas: "Siendo una de tres hermanos descendientes de madre irlandesa y padre puertorriqueño (quien fue el primer miembro de su familia en asistir a la universidad y que posteriormente fue ascendido al rango de coronel en el Ejército de Estados Unidos).". I'll tanslate because I guess you don't understand Spanish: "Being one of three childern descendents of an Irish mother and a Puerto Rican father (who was the frist member of his family to attend a university and who later became a colonel in the U.S. Army).".


 * Thanks for your reply. I am reasonably fluent in Spanish, so I should have thought to Google for information on Vargas en español. Your source seems good so I concur with the "Irish-American" identification. 24.206.117.92 00:48, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

New post

 * As of September 19, Vargas has become the only anchor of 20/20, so the part in the beginning about her being co-anchor should be changed to reflect that.
 * Thank you for your observations, it shall be done. Tony the Marine (talk) 03:17, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Irrelevant Claims
According to IMDb, the TV news magazine 20/20 has only had 12 anchorpersons since its debut in 1978. Neither Vargas' being of Puerto Rican heritage or being a woman are notable in the particular context of 20/20 anchorpersons, as she was preceded in these veins by Barbara Walters and Connie Chung, both female and ethnic minorities (Jewish-American and Chinese-American respectively [incidentally Chung converted to Judaism as well]). Therefore, stating "Vargas is the first woman of Puerto Rican origin to be named anchor of ABC's television newsmagazine 20/20" doesn't contribute any meaningful information regarding Vargas' accomplishments, nor reveal any meaningful information regarding 20/20. (You might as well cite Hugh Downs for being the first male descendant of Davy Crockett to anchor 20/20.) What would be relevant to mention, if it turns out to be the case, would be Vargas' standing as the first woman of Puerto Rican descent to anchor a national primetime news program in the U.S.

Response
Irrelevant Claims? I take it that you are not Puerto Rican, which is obvious since you insist on eliminating any referrence to her Puerto Rican heritage. However, for us Puerto Ricans it is a question of pride when anyone of Puerto Rican descent has accomplished what Vargas has. That fact is that she is of Puerto Rican descent and as a fact it will remain as such. I consider your remarks: (You might as well cite Hugh Downs for being the first male descendant of Davy Crockett to anchor 20/20.) as sarcastic.


 * First of all, I was attempting to balance out what I perceived was, based upon information from the sources I quoted, possible bias or distortion on the part of the wiki article's author in favor of Vargas' Puerto Rican heritage and to the neglect or belittlement of her entire heritage. It is not my intent to negate or belittle Vargas' Puerto Rican heritage, but merely to give proper consideration to her full heritage, as Vargas is, like most Americans (myself included), of mixed heritage and I feel it's necessary to fairly acknowledge that. If someone were to refer to me as a Cherokee their statement would be correct but incomplete, as I am also Irish and French—none of which I identify with to the exclusion of the others, because I believe in acknowledging diversity wherever it exists.


 * Secondly, if you will re-read the emphasis in my objection, you may see what I was actually objecting to was not the mentioning of Vargas' accomplishments with respect to her Puerto Rican descent, but to the narrowness of the claim as it is currently worded, hence my (not intentionally sarcastic) comparison to Hugh Downs being the first male descendant of Davy Crockett to anchor 20/20 (a true fact by the way); both "accomplishments" sound equally contrived and not truly significant. As I mentioned, if we can establish that Vargas is the first woman of Puerto Rican heritage to anchor a national primetime broadcast news program in the U.S., that is the accomplishment that should be cited instead. In other words, it's not the historical minutiae of 20/20 itself that's significant—but rather of broadcast news in general. 24.206.117.92 00:48, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Did I forget to mention that I wrote the article? I'm sorry. I will add the Irsih-American cat. I hope that you continue to contribute to Wiki and that you register. Oh yes, next time you should sign your messages with four tides (~).Tony the Marine 17:19, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

I really don't think you mean to suggest that Charles Gibson and Elizabeth Vargas had a son in 2003.

"In April 2005, as Peter Jennings was receiving chemotherapy for his lung cancer, she and Charles Gibson temporarily filled in for him on World News Tonight Primetime until his death. In 2003, the couple had a son."