User:Moonraker/VC

=Problems with this article=

I want to draw attention to a number of problems with this article. Biographies of living persons says:

Editors must take particular care when adding information about living persons to Wikipedia page. Such material requires a high degree of sensitivity, and must adhere to all applicable laws in the United States, to this policy, and to Wikipedia's three core content policies:
 * Neutral point of view (NPOV)
 * Verifiability (V)
 * No original research (NOR)

We must get the article. Be very firm about the use of high-quality sources. All quotations and any material must be supported by an inline citation to a reliable, published source. Contentious material about living persons (or, in some cases, recently deceased) that is unsourced or poorly sourced—whether the material is negative, positive, neutral, or just questionable—should be.

Lead

 * ”Vernon Coleman... is an English blogger, novelist, self-published author and conspiracy theorist who writes on topics related to human health, politics and animal issues. He was formerly a newspaper columnist and general practitioner (GP).”
 * This is not at all neutral in tone. Coleman’s main careers have been as a GP, author, and journalist. Putting “blogger, novelist, self-published author” first is misleading and too derogatory. On one point of detail, sources in the article confirm that Coleman has self-published several books, through his own publishing companies, but he has also been published by various mainstream publishers, so either that should be made clear, which would be over the top in the lead, or “self published” should be left out, because it is selective and misleading. I would suggest “...doctor, author, journalist, novelist, and blogger who has been called a conspiracy theorist. He writes mostly on topics related to human health, politics and animal issues.”


 * ”Coleman's medical health claims have been widely discredited and described as pseudoscientific.”
 * Some statements of Coleman’s have been strongly disputed by more senior doctors, and there is one source for the word “pseudoscientific”, in an article which is not about Coleman and only mentions him in passing: “As a former GP he would seem to have some credentials, yet he has a history of supporting pseudoscientific ideas, including misinformation about the causes of Aids.” There is no source for such a sweeping statement about Coleman’s “medical health claims” in general. The Dunfermline Press article says “Dr Vernon Coleman - who has been widely discredited”, which is a comment about him personally, but it does not substantiate that and a young provincial journalist is a weak source for such a hostile statement in the lead of the page. Yesterday, I added a tag after the sentence, but it has been removed, with the edit summary “not an improvement”. If no one can verify this statement, it is contrary to WP:BLP.

Career

 * ”In 1981, Coleman was fined by the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) for refusing to write the diagnoses on sick notes, which he considered to be a breach of patient confidentiality.He is no longer registered or licensed to practise as a GP principal, having relinquished his medical licence in March 2016.”
 * The fine is given far too much prominence, especially as the reliable source for the paragraph also comments “ “.


 * ”An anti-vivisectionist, Coleman has been a witness at the House of Lords on vivisection addressing himself as 'Professor'.”
 * The source for this is Hansard, and it uses the title of Professor, but there is no way to tell whether Coleman “addressed himself as Professor”. The last four words have no source and should be deleted.


 * My third comment on this section is that it leaves out significant information about the career. There is a citation to a GMC page which sets out Coleman’s degrees: “Primary medical qualification MB ChB 1970 University of Birmingham / Provisional registration date 22 Dec 1970 / Full registration date 02 Mar 1972”, but the only information used from this is that Coleman is no longer registered.

Writing and media appearances

 * ”Coleman is a much criticised self-published author of a range of books and blogger of conspiracy theories and pseudoscientific claims.”
 * This sentence has a string of sources currently numbered [1][6][7][8][9].
 * [1]: There is nothing in this which supports the sentence, except that it says Coleman has written a large number of books of various kinds.
 * [6] is an onslaught on Coleman in a Bangkok newspaper and calls him a “conspiracy theorist” and says he “repeats many of the conspiracy theories we've heard elsewhere”.
 * [7] is one source for “Dr Vernon Coleman... has been widely discredited”, but it is not a peer-reviewed reliable source, and the writer seems to be a young journalist in Dunfermline. Writing about a controversial leaflet which “Shirley-Anne Somerville has strongly criticised”, she says of it “there are no suggestions that the leaflet is by Dr Coleman”.
 * [8] says “'Conscientious Objectors'. Financial Times. London. 8 August 2003”. I can’t trace that and rather doubt that it supports the sentence.
 * [9] says of Coleman “As a former GP he would seem to have some credentials, yet he has a history of supporting pseudoscientific ideas, including misinformation about the causes of Aids.”


 * This sentence is not a neutrally written and reliably-sourced overview of Coleman’s  writing and media sources. It should be replaced by something reliably sourced.
 * The rest of this section has some neutrally written paragraphs, others less so, but is generally well-sourced.

Advertising Standards Authority rulings
This section has one reliable source, but there are some statements in the paragraph which are not in the source.

“Complainants, including a GP, challenged whether the advertisement was misleading, offensive and denigratory to the medical profession.” The last seven words seem to be invented, the last part of the complaint was about “whether the ad unfairly denigrated farmers and butchers”, and in fact that was not upheld.

“The ASA also found Coleman had made misleading claims regarding the link between food and cancer” In fact, the complaint was that “the ad misleadingly exaggerated the likelihood of cancerous tissue being present in meat products”, and the finding was “ In the absence of any explanation or substantiation to support these implications, we concluded that the claims were likely to mislead.”

“...and deemed the advert was likely to offend and denigrate the medical profession and said Coleman's claims such as "Ten reasons why you shouldn't trust your doctor" were irresponsible, as they would discourage people from seeking essential medical help.”

This all seems to be invented. The source says “On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clause 20.1 (Denigration and unfair advantage) but did not find it in breach.”

This all needs to be corrected, and the various inventions taken out.

List of books
I see from the page history that there used to be a list of books, including their publishers, but it has been deleted. I suggest that this should be reinstated.

Discussion
Please add any comments on the above here.