Talk:William Safire

Present text: “The source who made these allegations, is alleged to have become concerned that such a meeting could have harmed his career "Hoping to clear his name, Ani asked his superiors…”

1) errant comma after “allegations” (?) 2) missing period after “career” 3) errant quotation mark before “Hoping” 4) no antecedent for “Ani”

Respectfully submitted.

Jewish
If you are going to have any feature on Safire, surely you need to give some real detail on his background. For example, he often writes Zionist-sounding stuff on Israel, but is he Jewish? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.103.105.135 (talk • contribs) 08:41, 16 September 2004 (UTC)


 * Please give a reason that it is important to know that he is Jewish. Would you need to know that he is Christian in this article?

Last two paragraphs of main article
The tone and emphasis in the last two paragraphs of the main article seem very un-NPOV. He's written about a lot more in his career of column-writing than just Iraq. These paragraphs seem specifically aimed at vilifying him in the context of current events, rather than contributing to a biographical encyclopedia entry.

pulitzer price
On the pulitzer... I don't point out that just about every body in the beltway investigated and found nothing, just that the charges were never boarn out. I think this is important because a journalist should... be able to find good facts. Pdbailey 23:45, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

On Language
It should also be pointed out that his convervative viewpoint carries over into his On Language column, frequently taking not-so-subtle jabs at Democrats in the sentences he uses as examples of word usage. This, of course, is common knowledge yet the Times continues to overlook it.
 * OH NOEX! POLITICAL CONTENT IN A NEWSPAPER!?!!? Get a grip, pal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.105.180.142 (talk) 14:41, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Category: American Linguists
As far as I am aware, Safire is not a linguist, but a popular writer on grammar and etymology. He has done no significant work in linguistics, doesn't have a degree in linguistics or a related field, and doesn't seem to be interested in linguistics at all. 69.109.223.92 13:56, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

eh.. for the sake of amusement
you think you'd ever write a bit on the masons in jerusalem/us & uk? ... and the ties to religion... and the general direction of the media's money (while you're at it)

Commentary Wrong
Talking about his politics, the article states:

"Many readers who followed his columns in the New York Times felt dismayed when he consistently brought up the point that Iraqi intelligence agents met with the 9/11 attackers in Prague, Czech Republic[1]. This theory had been debunked by the CIA and other credible intelligence agencies. Still Safire kept insisting that this theory was true and used this theory to make a case for war against Iraq."

This actually was true. I don't see the source they said that the theory had been debunked by intelligence agencies. Quite the contrary, the 9-11 Commission Report stated on pp66-67 that Saddam Hussein's agents had indeed met with Al Qaeda operatives and talked about some collaboration, though nothing really came about the meetings. Still, the assertion that there was no meeting in the first place is completely false as per the bipartisan 9-11 Commission report. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Arnabdas (talk • contribs)


 * No, this was most likely false - in any case, no solid evidence has been found for this, despite years of efforts by governments, intelligence agencies and media reporters. Please read the statement and the source more closely. You are confusing the 9/11 attackers with Al Qaeda as a whole, and "Prague, Czech Republic" with "somewhere in the world".
 * The history of the claim that you are defending is described in great detail and with many sources in the article Atta in Prague. Suffice it to say here that in 2006 even Vice President Cheney has distanced himself from it and stated "We’ve never been able to confirm any connection between Iraq and 9/11, and President Bush stated "I don't think we ever said—at least I know I didn't say—that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein."
 * I don't see the source they said that the theory had been debunked by intelligence agencies - that is true, the source was missing, but you could have found it yourself just by searching for "Prague" in the PDF file of the 9-11 Commission report that you quoted - you would have found a text titled "Atta’s Alleged Trip to Prague" on p. 228-29. I have added it to the article.
 * On the other hand, it is just not true that "the 9-11 Commission Report ... stated on pp66-67 that a meeting had taken place between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda", as you have written in your addition. Nowhere on these two pages does the 9-11 Commission mention a meeting between Saddam Hussein (personally) and Al Qaeda.
 * Regards, High on a tree 21:36, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Op-Ed in Harold Washington race
Isn't he well known for his article in the Harold Washington / Bernard Epton campaign? 88.163.48.104 (talk) 12:53, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Pronunciation of name
The article says an "e" is added for pronunciation, but the pronunciation of his name is not given (it should be in the introduction). Can somebody please add it? Jalwikip (talk) 10:14, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
 * This may be information you already have: he pronounced his name just like it looks, like the gem.


 * My hand-held doesn't have the characters to produce WP's pronunciation system, but if it's not addressed soon, I'll stick something in, and maybe someone will make it consistent.Ragityman (talk) 10:29, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Books
I intend to sort the books into fiction and nonfiction, after a reasonable delay for comment. Does anyone else find it distressing that NYT publisher and heir to the Ochs dynasty included two comma splices in his statement? Maybe it's a transcription of an oral statement, and therefore eligible to copy edit?Ragityman (talk) 11:17, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Privacy positions
Should be stated more clearly that he was a strong privacy advocate (including restrictions on electronic data held about business customers etc.), and so sometimes found himself in unexpected alignment with civil liberties groups and leftist consumer advocates... AnonMoos (talk) 10:18, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

Citation Needed
The sole remaining statement in this article that is tagged "citation needed" is: "Between March 2002 and the invasion a year later, Safire wrote 27 opinion pieces in support of the [Iraqi] war." Short of providing links for all 27 articles, what can be done to address the seven-year-old request to document this statement so that the Citation Needed template can be removed from this article? I propose either: 1) The article simply state that Safire wrote "several" opinion pieces in support of the war. 2) Since elsewhere in the article, Safire's support for the war is well documented, this contested statement be deleted in its entirety. Mccunney (talk) 14:33, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

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'Ode on a G-String' missing
In: G-string 2nd sentence there is mentioned his 'Ode on a G-String' . I think, this should be included in this article here or here should at least be a link to this. Ping welcome. Steue (talk) 22:55, 24 January 2021 (UTC)