Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/William E. "Bill" Thornton


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. (non-admin closure) &mdash; Music1201  talk  15:03, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

William E. "Bill" Thornton

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Doesn't meet WP:POLITICIAN. WP:POLOUTCOMES states ''Municipal politicians are not inherently notable just for being in politics, but neither are they inherently non-notable just because they are in local politics. Each case is evaluated on its own individual merits. Mayors of cities of at least regional prominence have usually survived AFD, although the article should say more than just "Jane Doe is the mayor of Cityville".'' In this case, that is precisely what we have, as the subject only served one term (two years) as mayor. Most of the sources given are trivial mentions of employment, residence, to unnecessarily source mayoral succession, etc. Despite the use of an WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS argument here, I'm not seeing the sort of WP:BIODEPTH that I see with other articles on other mayors of San Antonio, who by and large had longer political careers to be written about overall. There is also no non-local coverage of the subject, there's one primary source used, and I'm not even sure the Business Journal is an appropriate source. Therefore, I believe this falls well below the bar on notability. MSJapan (talk) 15:07, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Keep. This article has had a problematic editing history, but thanks to 's efforts it is now an acceptable stub, and there are plenty of sources available (and I've added a few) about this former mayor of the 7th largest city in the United States. The subject is notable; improvement, not deletion, is what's called for here. --Arxiloxos (talk) 21:13, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Keep - I initially felt that this person did not meet the notability guidelines for politicians and was about to nominate for deletion myself, but when I investigated further, I found enough coverage to suggest that WP:GNG could be met. I would also support the reinstatement of the material removed from the article in this edit. Cordless Larry (talk) 21:48, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Considering that it's essentially defamatory towards the other party, I don't think so. Per WP:UNDUE, we're not going to pull one incident where nothing was proven, and call it out as 2/3 of the article just because there's a source for it. There were absolutely no ramifications on either side as a result. MSJapan (talk) 22:06, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
 * It's not defamatory. I made clear that "the police found no basis for the charge", and indeed quoted the other party's view on what the incident said about Thornton. Given that the article is short, any detail is likely to take up a significant proportion of the article, but we have to start somewhere. Cordless Larry (talk) 22:33, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
 * That still doesn't address WP:UNDUE - why is that detail important to a biography of the subject? Thi sis not an article about the election, and this speaks to my point - if the subject is notable, a minor item like this should not be a sizable of the article, but in fact, it is. The guy was mayor for two years, he's currently 72 years old, and this one event is a major part of his "available" biography?   The struggle to make this article not a collection of trivia is precisely why "not every municipal politician is notable by default." MSJapan (talk) 23:19, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
 * It's worth including because it gives an insight into his behavior and actions as a politician. Making what turned out to be an unfounded allegation against a rival in an election is a fairly significant event, otherwise newspapers wouldn't have been writing about it nine years later. Cordless Larry (talk) 06:34, 15 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Politicians-related deletion discussions. North America1000 20:24, 15 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Texas-related deletion discussions. North America1000 20:24, 15 July 2016 (UTC)


 * Keep The guidelines also state Mayors of cities of at least regional prominence have usually survived AFD, although the article should say more than just "Jane Doe is the mayor of Cityville". Given San Antonio's size, a mayor's notability is pretty well assured, and it doesn't take much more than a few reliable sources for this to clear the bar. The interview that's archived at the University of Texas, which was already part of the linked content, is kind of a clincher. Though the article's subject has been advised not to use it as a resume-posting. 2601:188:1:AEA0:65F5:930C:B0B2:CD63 (talk) 21:34, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Keep. Although there were certainly some problems here, they're for the cleanup brigade to fix and not for AFD — San Antonio is one of the largest cities in the United States, and thus its mayors have a clean pass of WP:NPOL #3 as soon as any significant RSability exists. Mayors of small towns need nationalized coverage to clear the bar — but mayors of major metropolitan cities, where the local media outlets are the higher class of sourcing that we would seek to help establish notability for anybody else, do not. Problematic content, like BLP issues and/or advertorial/PR spin, can be dealt with through the normal editing process. Bearcat (talk) 16:37, 18 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Keep Now demonstrates sufficient sourcing; kudos to CordlessLarry.E.M.Gregory (talk) 17:31, 18 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks, . deserves part of that credit. Cordless Larry (talk) 21:24, 18 July 2016 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.