Talk:Ted Stevens#Ethics Issues on Biography Pages of Politicians

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Ted Stevens Military.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:53, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

I just found a failed verification issue that makes me concerned that this article might have some NPOV issues regarding Gravel. The specific passage is:

{{tq2|On October 13, 1978, the last day of the 95th Congress, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, an act to protect and conserve a third of Alaska as 'America's last huge, untouched wilderness', an act which Stevens championed after providing a compromise with Mo Udall, was killed by Gravel, in an attempt to spite Stevens. The day before, Gravel had written to Stevens that he intended to oppose any attempt of a compromise, wanting instead to completely kill the bill.}}

The source cited at the end is an AP article, which supports few of those claims and almost contradicts some of them. It says:

{{tq2|[Gravel] had the unenviable position of being an Alaska Democrat when some residents were burning President Jimmy Carter in effigy for his measures to place large sections of public lands in the state under protection from development.

Gravel feuded with Alaska’s other senator, Republican Ted Stevens, on the land matter, preferring to fight Carter's actions and rejecting Stevens' advocacy for a compromise.

In the end, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, a compromise that set aside millions of acres for national parks, wildlife refuges and other protected areas. It was one of the last bills Carter signed before leaving office.}}

What was probably meant to be cited is the old Lemann article, which is cited at the end of the paragraph. But even that article is far more equivocal than the Wikipedia text—which is problematic. Lemann never says definitively that Gravel killed the compromise to spite Gravel. He says that's one theory of why Gravel killed the compromise—and he even suggests it was a minority theory:

{{tq2|There are several other theories as to why Gravel killed the bill. One is that he did it just to torment Stevens. Another is that his brief support of it was an aberration brought on my intense pressure from home-state politicians. Yet another is that the compromise was favorable to the timber interests but that the oil and mining interests, whose support Gravel values, really didn't like it.

What most people believe is that Gravel killed the compromise as part of his own reelection campaign strategy.}}

To use that source to say, definitively, that Gravel killed the bill to "spit Stevens" raises both WP:NPOV and WP:FRINGE issues.--Jerome Frank Disciple 15:00, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

:will reword AlaskaGal~ ^_^ 13:14, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

::Great work so far!--Jerome Frank Disciple 13:58, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

:::thank you!!! i'm not too sure what else is missing, but if you spot anything, please point it out! i intend to renominate the article by the 1st of june latest, but i won't rush anything, and if it goes past then, then fair enough. i do think that i'm getting close enough though. i also want to find some more sources on some issues and clean up all those remaining dead links ^^ AlaskaGal~ ^_^ 20:55, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

::::Every dead link has since been removed, I'll just review the Gravel section now to see if anything else may violate WP:NPOV. AlaskaGal~ ^_^ 21:16, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

:::::Great! I do recommend using citation templates where you can—since they're used through most the article, they should probably be used everywhere. (Just look at the other references in the article for examples, you'll usually be relying on {{t1|cite news}} and {{t1|cite web}}, maybe a {{t1|cite book}} or {{t1|cite case}} here or there). Plus, you never want bare URLs.

:::::I've probably been involved enough here that I shouldn't do the second review, but I'm happy to try to chip in and help out as it goes!--Jerome Frank Disciple 15:38, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

::::::alright, ty. i used to use citation templates, no clue when or why i stopped, should get back in the habit, heh ^^ AlaskaGal~ ^_^ 15:57, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

{{Talk:Ted Stevens/GA3}}