Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2006-08-03 Mosaic: World News from the Middle East

Mediation Case: 2006-08-03 Mosaic: World News from the Middle East
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Request Information

 * Request made by: John Nagle 17:04, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Where is the issue taking place?
 * Mosaic: World News from the Middle East
 * Charles Jacobs


 * Who's involved?


 * What's going on?
 * We're getting close to a revert war over whether Charles Jacobs should be mentioned in efforts to keep Mosaic: World News from the Middle East off of cable TV. Three newspaper articles mention his efforts to do so.


 * "Middle East News Reports Are Not Welcomed by All
 * Mideast Cable Show to Air 5 days
 * Arab News Program Sparks Outcry


 * In those articles, Jacobs is the opponent mentioned first, mentioned most prominently, and quoted the most.  objects to any mention of Jacobs, claiming that "there's no evidence that Jacobs "led" the protests.", and that "A brief couple of sentences listing the fact that there were critics and giving the general outline of their complaints is appropriate for this article, no more".   has repeatedly changed the article to use "weasel word" phrases like "Critics there have protested", removing all names.


 * Jacobs is a public figure (national TV appearances, op-eds in the New York Times, etc.) and a full-time activist who runs, among other things, the The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership, which recruits and trains more pro-Israel activists.


 * What really objects to, I suspect, is that I've been working on articles about pro-Israel organizations and making properly-cited connections between them, finding out who's behind them and which organizations are run by the same people.  I started doing this when chasing down some redlinks, but then it became interesting as more connections started turning up.  In particular, I'm interested in the links between openly pro-Israel organizations like the David Project and supposedly neutral organizations like Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.  Jacobs founded both, and CAMERA has attacked Mosaic, which Jacobs is also attacking.  That's notable.
 * --John Nagle 17:04, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * What's actually going on


 * As he has explained above, believes he has discovered a Zionist conspiracy centred on Charles Jacobs, and has started creating a series of articles attempting to uncover and prove his theory.  Unfortunately, John's articles often violate the original research and neutrality policies, and in particular his edits to the Charles Jacobs article often violate the original research, neutrality and biography of living persons policies.  The latter insists on only including negative information from the most reliable sources, yet John somehow imagines that an article on SourceWatch meets that standard, or that an article by a second year college student in the local college paper meets it.


 * Jacobs himself is a marginally notable individual; there are very few references from reliable sources in the article on him, and I suspect he would fail an AfD. Nevertheless, John feels he must place him front and center in any article even remotely related to Jacobs. Thus when Jacobs, along with many other local residents, went to a 2004 meeting of the local public access channel in the town in which he lives, to protest a specific program being broadcast, in John's eyes this suddenly becomes huge news, with Jacobs at the center of yet another conspiracy, even though the sources do not support this claim.  No doubt this fits in with his conspiracist view that this is all co-ordinated by the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry, another claim that the sources do not support. Jayjg (talk) 21:03, 4 August 2006 (UTC)


 * ''What would you like to change about that?
 * Material on Charles Jacobs that is properly cited should stay in. --John Nagle 17:04, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Material in articles must conform with policy, including WP:NOR, WP:NPOV, and WP:BLP. Jayjg (talk) 21:03, 4 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Would you prefer we work discreetly? If so, how can we reach you?
 * Just write to my talk page. User Talk:Nagle. --John Nagle 17:04, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Actually, if there's going to be mediation, it will have to be with the official Mediation Committee, not the unofficial Mediation Cabal. The last time I tried to work with the Cabal, they assigned someone who had 30 article edits to the case, and was completley unaware of policy, so I won't be making that mistake again. Jayjg (talk) 21:03, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Heh. Do whatever you want, just remember that no one is assigned cases... we take them on our own free will. Medcom it is... want me to close the case? -- The Prophet Wiz ard of the Cray on Cake  20:57, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, if the other party has refused mediation, now what? --John Nagle 21:38, 14 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Either wait or just simply close the case... he appears to want to use MedCom rather than MedCab. -- The Prophet Wiz ard of the Cray on Cake  20:53, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Mediator response
Hey everybody! I'll be your mediator for the moment... sorry for the delay, the cases backlog is oddly clogged lately. I'd prefer we go to my talk page to talk about this, because it has an awesome background color, but anywhere you want to go is fine with me. Thanks! -- The Prophet Wiz ard of the Cray on Cake  16:36, 12 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Mediation has moved elsewhere apparently... see above section. -- The Prophet Wiz ard of the Cray on Cake  23:30, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Compromise offers
This section is for listing and discussing compromise offers.



Discussion

 * OK, we have a mediator. Hello. --John Nagle 16:40, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Hello... so... yanno... about that whole, mediation thing... :P -- The Prophet Wiz ard of the Cray on Cake  03:48, 13 August 2006 (UTC)