Talk:Wilbert Rideau

Various edits
I made various copyedits. The only substantive change is that I deleted the word "covertly" in describing the filming of Rideau at the jail. I don't know of any reliable source, or indeed any source at all, that has ever stated or claimed that the filming was done "covertly" (which means, essentially, secretly). The film has been shown countless times on television (including this morning, Sunday, April 25, 2010, on CBS television), and it appears obvious that both Rideau and the Sheriff, sitting at a table facing the camera, are both aware that the camera is right there in front of them. Famspear (talk) 15:04, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

More sources
WhisperToMe (talk) 15:47, 16 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Cobb, Kim. "A new life after 44 years in prison." Houston Chronicle. January 18, 2005
 * Cobb, Kim. "Jury verdict to free prison journalist." Houston Chronicle. January 16, 2005
 * "Teen-ager shoots U.S. bank teller." Associated Press at The Leader-Post. Saturday February 18, 1961.
 * Mentions a book-signing event: "Local book events: May 9-15." Houston Chronicle. May 9, 2005
 * Rideau, Wilbert. "Why Prisons Don't Work." TIME. Monday March 21, 1994. WhisperToMe (talk) 02:05, 8 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Schmidt, Teresa. "Rideau Update: Jodie Sinclair Testifies." KPLC. January 12, 2005. WhisperToMe (talk) 04:08, 8 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Johnson, Allen, Jr. "Keys To Freedom." The Gambit. March 13, 2001.
 * This says that it was the Columbia Journalism Review that referred to Rideau and Sinclair as being the "Woodward and Bernstein of prison journalism." WhisperToMe (talk) 11:34, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Content dispute
WhisperToMe and Eye Smith are having a dispute about the content of this article on Eye Smith's Talk page. It's one thing to resolve a minor dispute about an article on an editor Talk page, but this is much more than a minor dispute. Other editors should have an opportunity to weigh in. Please discuss the article here.--Bbb23 (talk) 02:45, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I also started a discussion at Fringe_theories/Noticeboard, hoping to get some feedback from that page too. The main dispute seems to focus upon the role of Billy Sinclair, who served as one of Rideau's co-editors. WhisperToMe (talk) 02:52, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

The previous discussion: WhisperToMe (talk) 02:54, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
 * My first message to Eye
 * Eye's response
 * My response to that response: User_talk:Eye_Smith

Something to check
Eye Smith posted

and was the first prisoner to win the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel award for his examination of prisoners lost in the system in his 1978 feature, "Conversations with the Dead."

But I would like to have verification upon getting a copy of the source WhisperToMe (talk) 23:16, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

New changes
After being gone for quite a while, Eye Smith returned and immediately made quite a few changes to the content of the article. It's hard to sort through the changes. Some added material, some subtracted material. Virtually no explanation as to why he was making these changes. I've reverted the changes because I think they should be discussed first. Hopefully, Eye Smith will explain some of his thinking here.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:47, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

The changes were explained as correcting erroneous information about the ABA and Polk Awards. In Sinclair's own autiobiography (sourced in my edits), he himself says Rideau received the ABA award, the first prisoner in history to receive it. I cited a Morning Advocate (Baton Rouge) article that quoted the ABA on Rideau getting the award, the first prisoner in history to receive it. The award, on the current site is not credited to Rideau, by himself. That's incorrect. That's the explanation. It's an error that needs to be corrected. Sources that came along later and got it wrong are cited to support erronous statements. They should be removed. That's the explanation.

As for the George Polk Award, again, both Sinclair and Rideau, in their respective autobiographies agree that Sinclair won the Polk award for "The Other Side of Murder," and Rideau won for (please note correct title of article) "Prison: The Sexual Jungle." They shared a category, Special Reporting and, by each man's account, won separate awards. The explanation for these changes is: Accuracy. Wikipedia purports to give accurate information, not material based on incorrect media reports.

Moreover, in an edit not yet made, Sinclair in his autobiography says he was made co-editor of The Angolite in 1980, after the Polk Awards. The fact that another editor found a source that was inaccurate and cited it, does not make it true. Sinclair and Rideau in their respective autobiographies agree on these facts. Wikipedia should respect that.

So my thinking is this: clean up the errors.Eye Smith (talk) 01:41, 6 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I sincerely appreciate your willingness to cooperate, but it's still hard to understand precisely what you want to change, both substance-wise and source-wise. You need to break it down into assertion + source, not just generally address the topics.


 * Another alternative, if you find it easier, would be to make a single change to the article. That way, we could review the change and ensure it's correct. If we think it's not, we could then discuss it. I looked at the advice UncleDouggie gave you, and part of it looks similar to what I am trying to communicate: "It is also useful when starting out to make smaller incremental changes spaced in time a bit instead of one big one."--Bbb23 (talk) 04:18, 7 April 2011 (UTC)
 * "The explanation for these changes is: Accuracy. Wikipedia purports to give accurate information, not material based on incorrect media reports." - Actually, verifiability, not truth is the criterion for inclusion, as per WP:V: "he threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth: whether readers can check that material in Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true." - The WP:V page explains what sources are reliable and why.
 * If one media report is incorrect (that does happen sometimes), you need to find other reports or other reliable sources that are correct. If you have questions about particular sources, make a post at Reliable sources/Noticeboard
 * WhisperToMe (talk) 22:49, 12 April 2011 (UTC)