Talk:Tony Hendra

A note
User HenryHolt is apparently an employee of publisher Henry Holt. He wrote the following in the summary accompanying his upload of the cover of Tony Hendra's book, The Messiah Of Morris Avenue:


 * (This image is to the jacket cover of Tony Hendra's new novel. I am an employee of the company and if you have any questions or concerns please e-mail me at (removed for privacy reasons) The image is also available on our website: http://www.henryholt.com/mess)

I have just emailed him at that address referring him to some relevant Wikipedia policies regarding the repeated edits he's been making to several Tony Hendra-related articles. Basically, he's purging relevant, sourced, NPOV information about criticisms of and controversies regarding Hendra. That's bogus. Wikipedia is not his publisher's marketing channel. It's a shared resource, and he is peeing in the well. Here's the email I sent him:


 * Hi. Several of us now have had to take time to correct your edits of Tony Hendra-related articles at Wikipedia. Your actions there are contrary to the policies of the site. I refer you to the following pages:


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial_%28Keep_in_mind%29
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NPOV_tutorial


 * If you are willing to contribute information to the site in the spirit of Wikipedia, that's great, and to the extent you're willing to do that I applaud you. But it is important for you to realize that the site is not a private marketing channel of Henry Holt, or any other company. It is a community resources, and those of us who have contributed to the site over time will resist efforts to weaken its content. My guess is that overall, Henry Holt will be better served by working in tandem with the other users of Wikipedia and following the site's policies, rather than by violating those policies in an attempt to turn the site into a commercial for the company's products.


 * John Callender
 * jbc@west.net

We'll see if that does any good. -- John Callender 14:30, 21 April 2006 (UTC)


 * John, nice work. I agree that the edits removing the allegations are POV and thus against policy, i have been keeping an eye on them myself. However, i removed the editor's name and email address from your comment above, its generally not considered good form to publically reveal identifying information about editors without their permission. Rockpocket 16:58, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Gotcha. Sorry about that. For what it's worth, I was just quoting from the message he posted himself in the Edit summary when he uploaded the image of the book's dust jacket.

He replied to my email, saying (in part) the following:


 * The information that I had deleted reflected Tony in a negative and slanderous way. If he had admitted that he had done it, then I wouldn't touch it but since he consistently denies the claim, it should not be there.

I responded that I disagreed with his interpretation about whether the information should be included, and encouraged him to post his reasons here if he still wanted to remove it. He was generally very reasonable, making me regret my high-handed comments about peeing in the well and all. So hopefully this will all work out.

One aspect of this that's kind of interesting to me is the way he chose to register as his username HenryHolt, the name of the company division he works for (albeit the name of an actual person, the founder of the company, who died in 1926). In that sense, it's sort of like a role account, rather than an individual user account, which might tend to get kind of confusing if more than one person at the company was going to use the account. It wasn't like he was trying to hide it, since he identified himself by name and email (and explicitly solicited feedback) in his edit summary when he uploaded the dust jacket image. I wonder if that sort of thing is going to become more commonplace as Wikipedia grows, and more commercial companies concern themselves with its content. -- John Callender 23:47, 21 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry, i never realised HenryHolt had volunteered that information previously. In that case there probably isn't a problem, but its often best to keep email addresses off of wikipedia pagesas much as possible anyway, if only to stop him getting snowed under in spam. Of course, he is incorrect in his assertion that the material is slanderous in itself. We are not doing anything other than documenting the public record (she accused him, he denied it - both facts). If the editor wishes to pursue the issue, he should indeed post here to justify why it is slanderous. The article does have slightly more 'negative' info about Hendra than most minor bios though, compared to 'positive' facts. That is not inherently wrong if those are the principle reasons for his notability. I'm not really familiar enough with him to judge, but perhaps expansion on his positive contributions would not go amis.


 * In terms of his username, well, there is examples of individuals who edit on behalf of corporate and political organisations, in attempt to 'manage' information. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with some one from his publisher editing his article as long as they keep it factual, others do it to the benefit of all involved. I'll add the editor to my watchlist just to be sure their contributions remain in good faith and within policy. Rockpocket 01:54, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Anthony Hendra's edit
I just reverted a series of edits by user User:Anthonyhendra, who I'll assume is the actual person the article is about. There was a fair amount of useful information in the addition, but it was overlong and fairly POV, amounting to a copy-and-pasted version of a publicity bio, apparently. Interestingly, the user put all the new material at the top of the article, and followed it by several pages of return characters, having the effect of pushing the original version of the article way down the page. An interesting approach to de-emphasizing the existing material, but not consistent with Wikipedia editing policies.

Anyway, I intend to take a look at the new material, and see what might be taken from it for the article. Anyone else who wants to do that is encouraged to do so as well.

For User:Anthonyhendra, the following resources are recommended:


 * Autobiography
 * Help:Contents/Policies_and_guidelines

Thanks. --John Callender 16:48, 28 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Hi again John (and Anthony). There is some good material in that bio posting from Anthony, if it could be teased out in a NPOV manner and accurately sourced. If i get a chance over the next week or so, i'll see what i can do to incorporate it. If Anthony could provide the source of this info, that would be very helpful also.  Rockpock e  t  17:53, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Other Projects
Was he not involved in producing parody newspapers? I seem to remember "Not the New York Times," "Not the Wall Street Journal," a parody on the New York Post, and one of the National Enquirer (in which he called himself "Tonioso Hendra" on the masthead). I am going by memory, so I'll leave it to others who may have kept copies to add to the article proper. Eddieuny 04:03, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Proposed cleanup
I intend to go through the article and take out some of the pro-Hendra language, while leaving the essential facts. In a number of places in the article, it reads like a resume, talking about the "acclaimed" this and "successful" that. I think it would be stronger if some of that was de-hyped. -- John Callender (talk) 19:29, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Campaign of POV edits
There appears to be a long-running campaign of edits on this article by what ostensibly are a series of separate users, but who appear to have certain characteristics in common, suggesting that they're actually the same person. This user (or users) have consistently edited the article in a manner that appears intended to enhance Hendra's professional reputation, while removing mentions of the controversy associated with his daughter's book (in which she alleges that she was abused by Hendra as a child).

Looking back over the history of the page, there was a user HenryHolt who edited the page a number of times in April 2006. In correspondence with that user at the time, he or she acknowledged being an employee of Hendra's publisher ("Henry Holt" is the corporate name of that publisher). At the time the user gave me the impression of being someone acting in good faith, who, when Wikipedia's policies were pointed out, ceased making edits with strong pro-Hendra POV.

Since then there have been several other users who have engaged in sustained campaigns of editing the article to add pro-Hendra material, and remove controversial material. In June of 2006 a user Anthonyhendra made a number of such edits. I speculated at the time that the user in question actually was Tony Hendra (the subject of the article), though I'm not aware that the user ever acknowledged that. Besides reflecting a strong pro-Hendra POV and access to highly detailed (and unsourced) material about his career, I note in retrospect that the user in question used a lowercase "h" for his last name, and never supplied an edit summary.

Since that time, there have been three more users who have made a series of edits to the article that have a lot in common with the Anthonyhendra edits. The user "Galahad inspring" made a series of edits in December 2007 and January 2008, the user "Newyork journalist" made a series of edits in February 2008, and the user "London independent" made a series of edits beginning in January 2008 and continuing until the present. In each case, I note that the username has an uppercase first name, a lowercased last name, and no user page (as did the earlier "Anthonyhendra" account). I also note that the users tend to make pro-Hendra edits containing detailed, unsourced information about his career, and to remove mentions of the Jessica Hendra allegations. The users never supply an edit summary. In all cases since the "Anthonyhendra" account (but not including that account), the edits are always accompanied by a "This is a minor edit" flag.

On balance, I think it's likely that "Galahad inspring", "Newyork journalist", and "London independent" are sock puppet accounts for a single user. I suspect, although the evidence in this case is not as strong, that that user is, in fact, Tony Hendra (or at least, someone acquainted with him who has detailed knowledge of his professional career, and a desire to remove mentions of the controversy involving his daughter).

I encourage the user in question to review Biographies of living persons. I believe you will be more effective at creating an accurate, fair representation of Tony Hendra's life and career by working openly with other editors, rather than by trying to mask your efforts behind multiple accounts. For other editors, I wanted to mention what I'd noticed, and alert you to the apparent campaign to skew the article. -- John Callender (talk) 19:41, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

And there's now a new edit that has the same hallmarks of the pro-Hendra sock puppet campaign: User Bravuragoldfarb (uppercase first name, lowercase last name, though as with the Anthonyhendra user, no space) makes a "minor edit" to insert unsourced information that embellishes Hendra's professional resume (removing the mention that he shared the Time magazine cover with two other people, for example). Most problematically, he inserts a strong POV spin into the description of the New York Times' ombudsman's comments on the publication of the Jessica Hendra sexual abuse allegations.

I'd be willing to put money on this being Tony Hendra himself, editing his own biography. Since he seems not to have discovered this Talk page (none in the chain of sock puppets have ever made an edit here), I don't expect he'll read this, so I'm just mentioning it so other editors will keep an eye open for his edits, and, as appropriate, tone down the pro-Hendra spin. Thanks. --John Callender (talk) 17:13, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Sayings of Khomeini?
The article credits him as editor of the book The Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini Trans. The Little Green Book of Ayatollah Khomeini (Paris). (Editor) (1980).

I don't see his name listed on the book. Is there a reference for this? 76.241.143.42 (talk) 23:07, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Worthy Of Inclusion?
As noted, early in his career as a performer , he worked with John Cleese & Graham Chapman. Later, as a staff member of The National Lampoon , in the "In Like A Lion" issue - March 1977 ( ? ) - Tony Hendra wrote the Monty Python parody titled "Monty Snake". ( Illustrated by Randy Enos ). It's hard to say where the "parody" begins, and a sort of angry jealousy begins. I'm unsure if it's necessary to include in the main body - thus I've attempted no changes - but, it is of some interest … or perhaps not. 75.104.174.154 (talk) 18:45, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Hendra diagnosed with ALS
Hello all. I'm terrible at the WP coding, but if any experienced editors are following this page, it might be worth adding that in November of 2019, Hendra was diagnosed with ALS. More details here: https://fundly.com/crack-a-bottle-crack-als?fbclid=IwAR0sJsJSZMnfQCalUm5y33FIeJQ-w6pC31ER3sguomUwLPph150P7ZYRSd8 and here: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.burns.3139/posts/10157909677296468 CharlesGlasserEsq (talk) 23:58, 29 December 2019 (UTC)CharlesGlasserEsq