Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

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A very well put together article of a freelance journalist, helped along by the subject himself (JonathanCook (talk · contribs)), but at the end of the day, unnotable. The basic information of Cook comes from his own website and nowhere else. I'm not sure this is a real person or just a pseudonym. Delete per WP:BLP. brewcrewer (yada, yada) 02:37, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Brewcrewer--
You write that he isn't notable but you don't provide any reasoning. You do, however imply that all of the information comes from a "website and nowhere else." With all due disrespect, may I point out the "notes" section of the article? Did you even click on any of the links? The man is a published author, for christ's sake! What more do you want?
--NBahn (talk) 03:00, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Calm down, brother. He has obviously been published. But biographical information solely originates from his own website. Thats why this well formatted article can be deceiving. The "notes" are basically a list of where he was published, and then repeated in the "works" and "further reading" sections.--brewcrewer (yada, yada) 03:43, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Brewcrewer—
Which section of WP:BLP do you believe calls for deletion of this article?
--NBahn (talk) 06:23, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Strong Keep and suggest speedy closure WP:SNOW. Jonathan Cook is the author of several books and has written extensively for several leading European newspapers. I admit to being sceptic to the reasons for this AfD-nomination. The nominator has a very long history of editing several articles with a strong pro-Isreali WP:POV. I don't mean to assume bad faith by this, and I don't think the nominator will deny having a pro-Israeli POV. Nothing wrong with that. Many of us have different POVs and that's all fine as long as we edit in a responsible manner, and it is my experience that the nominatior usually does that, but the effort to remove the article on an author and journalist who is consistently critical of Israel makes the nominator's POV relevant in this case. Having published extensively on a very notable conflict in a number of very large newspapers and having published several books, Cook is certainly notable.Jeppiz (talk) 03:49, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Got sources?--brewcrewer (yada, yada) 03:55, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Sure, but sources for what, if you'd care to specify?Jeppiz (talk) 04:09, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Delete. First, I'm compelled to note that this is the first time I've ever seen a snow suggestion where -- other that the snow proposer -- there is unanimity in the opposite direction. Albeit, at the time a unanimity of one. As to the substantive issue, I don't see this fellow as sufficiently notable. Maybe one day. But not now.--Epeefleche (talk) 04:16, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Comment Your note is noted. It is hardly unusual to see a snow suggestion as the first comment. The "unanimity", as you call it, was only the nominator's opinion, so calling it "unanimity" is at bit comical, if you excuse me. And if publishing four books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and writing extensively about the same conflict for newspapers such as The Guardian, Le Monde is not notable, I wonder what is. My suggestion to keep as per WP:SNOW remains in place.Jeppiz (talk) 04:23, 27 November 2009 (UTC)]

I don't see any of the books as being notable in and of themselves, and therefore don't see them as conferring notability. Freelance journalists are a dime a dozen, and someone (him?) seeking to pull him up by his own bootstraps with quotes to his own website as to his uniqueness does little to compel me to find him notable. Not everyone who has written for notable newspapers is themselves notable, so that also doesn't do it for me. The article should also be stripped of the self-promotional material, if by any chance it is not deleted. But I see this as a delete.--Epeefleche (talk) 04:55, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

I just noticed something curious. I believe the article mentioned that he authored four books in the lead, which was what you reflected. And Slim today changed that to "several" books "including ... (and then mentioning the only three I believe he authored)". But even his own website -- assuming it is accurate -- only mentions him as being the author of three books. I expect that the inflation of the number of books he authored was accidental, but in any event I've dialed the lead back to reflect that he authored three books.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:52, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

I agree about the point of removing self-promotional material, some sections of the article as irrelevant (the part about him having a "perspective" different from others is pure WP:PEACOCK). Bad quality of an article, however, is an argument to improve it, not to delete it.Jeppiz (talk) 05:02, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

My comment first spoke to the paucity of indicia of notability (IMHO). Full stop. My comment then, separately, suggested that if the article survives, the self-promotional maaterial be deleted. Yes, you are correct that the second point did not bear on notabilty--though I imagine that as with COI it might well lead to closer examination. And certainly none of the article that is supported solely by his own website (him graduating certain schools, w/honors, starting the Nazareth Press Agency -- which I redlinked as I look to perhaps build an article, but see for some reason someone has un-linked -- can be counted as helping his effort to demonstrate notability. Actually, they should probably be struck.--Epeefleche (talk) 06:20, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Epeefleche--
As far as your "paucity of [indicators] of notability" are concerned, please allow me to direct your attention to two different reviews (here & here) of two different books. It didn't take me long at all to find them via Google; and I am absolutely convinced that I will find a plethora of printed sources from the library later today. He has had his books published by third party publishers and reviewed by independent reliable sources.
--NBahn (talk) 07:16, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Hi. I've just now only looked at the first "review". I'm not quite sure why you would view a "review" by a self-professed "pressure group of design professionals" as having any greater value than a review in a personal blog. Which for wikipedia purposes would generally be nil; it wouldn't even be appropriate for inclusion in the article, let alone as indicia of notablity. The second "review" appears to me to be not a review at all, but something he has written in which he mentions his book ... and what it appears in is also less than an RS; it is an individual's bog that describes itself by saying that it "contributes to the project of promoting contemporary radical* geography, a rich tradition of dissent and positing alternatives, a political movement to reclaim mind-spaces and virtual spaces, as well as public (physical) space". That also would fall somewhat short of RS criteria, I believe.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:49, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Strong Keep as per User:Jeppiz.
  --NBahn (talk) 04:30, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Delete Electronic intifada, a personal website and reviews of his book by an assortment of Islamic fundamentalist sources are not sufficient for notability. So what if he lives in Nazareth? Lots of people do. --Gilabrand (talk) 04:58, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Comment Please refrain from libellous comments. Calling Oxford Journals Islamic fundamentalist, or calling Junge Welt the same thing, is just silly.Jeppiz (talk) 05:08, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Query: I couldn't find any mention of Oxford in there. Care to clarify? Jaakobou^{Chalk Talk} 07:27, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• The eighth note, linked here is a review of Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel, and the Internal Refugees, in which Cook contributed a chapter (I cannot see the full review in order to personally verify it). Mackan79 (talk) 18:39, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Pluto Press, which published his "oeuvre" is not exactly a respectable outfit (see article). Zed also leaves much to be desired. There are many freelance journalists in the world. Is every one of them worthy of a Wikipage? Maybe the answer is yes, considering how many pages Wikipedia devotes to amateur golfers and fictional characters in computer games.--Gilabrand (talk) 07:41, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Delete - notability not established. I !voted delete before, but undid it whilst I investigated some the keep claims. They didn't pan out as far as I could tell. Crafty (talk) 05:00, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Craftyminion--
May I respectfully trouble you to please elaborate about what "didn't pan out"?
--NBahn (talk) 05:52, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Essentially I'm of the same mind as the nominator and Epeefleche. Crafty (talk) 05:59, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Softy slushy delete - there's seems to be some effort put into the page, but I'm concerned that it feels like a good part of the effort was put into promotional and obscure details rather than anything else. I can't say that a video interiew he made with his friend counts as "further reading" or that 4 links to anti-Israeli mouthpieces (EI, Islamonline, and Nur) and one more marxist "publication" give confidence that this fellow is more than a not-really noteworthy Muqawama activist. There's many of those around writing here and there for newspapers but I wouldn't use EI, for starters, for anything other than EI responses to what reliable sources say about them. If there's normative sources to replace the current ones, I will certainly reconsider though. Jaakobou^{Chalk Talk} 07:27, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Keep Between the books, articles and various reviews, I see sufficient material. See a review in the New Statesman here. A review by Rami George Khouri is here. His reporting is discussed in Jamil Halil's book Where now for Palestine? here. He is reviewed in Le Monde Diplomatique here. A review in the Jordan Times is here. This seems to me notable. Also, I think it would have been appropriate for Brewcrewer to notify User:Tiamut or myself, who had recently mentioned this writer on another page where Brewcrewer was participating, before nominating the page for deletion. Jumping straight to a !vote, without apparent research, and pointing fingers at the subject, does not seem like the right way to proceed. Mackan79 (talk) 07:41, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
• Keep - I'm curious how many times someone needs to have pieces, letters etc published by The Guardian and how many books critical of Israel they need to publish before they become unnotable and/or not a real person. It would certainly help if we could get this decision prodecure into a guideline. Sean.hoyland - talk 10:15, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
• Comment. I wonder if I'm allowed to say anything here, given the topics the man tends to write about, but from a journalism perspective - which is of course the correct way to look at this, rather than letting the fact that he's an "anti-Israel" writer prejudge the issue - being a "radical" freelance writer is not a bar to notability per se (see John Pilger). Not everyone has to be Bob Woodward to merit a page here - indeed plenty of generalist and little-known BBC TV reporters for example, who have never published books or had their writings included in serious mainstream publications, have their own pages on Wikipedia. At the end of the day, if someone comes across his name or his work and wants more info on him, it seems a bit odd to argue that they can't come here to find it. Maybe solicit some views from the WP:JOURNALISM project? --Nickhh (talk) 10:32, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

I completely concur that his views are irrelevant to this discussion. And I've myself even this month created a number of article on people who are generally felt to hold views similar to Cook's--so I resent the implications by some that people voting delete, as I did, must be doing so for that reason. If anything, it suggests to me that they are voting keep for the opposite reason. As to your other points, there is a sentiment in WP that just because other articles exists of lesser people he doesn't warrant one (the others, the thinking goes, have not been AFDd yet), and there is a standard--in some cases quite high-- for warranting a wikipedia page (you need only read through all the AfDs that deluge wikipedia at any point in time, and all the deletions that take place). --Epeefleche (talk) 11:13, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

I didn't mean to suggest that was necessarily the motivation for all or even any of those voting delete, I just said it shouldn't cloud the issue (and, to be honest, I suspect it is in part for some). I'm also conscious of WP:OTHERSTUFF - I should have expanded on my comment to make clear that I personally don't see a problem with having articles of that sort on fairly minor journalists. As noted, I don't see why WP shouldn't have brief, informative biogs on people who have a public profile, as long as they're not simply PR toss (or, alternatively, hatchet jobs). --Nickhh (talk) 11:23, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

I appreciate your reply. As far as whether the wiki rules for inclusion of material on wp are too stringent, I have some sympathy for the possibility that you may be correct. That being said, I believe that the proper forum to address that issue is on the policy pages (for notability generally, and for notability in certain circumstances). We have ended up where we are through a sometimes painful process of consensus-building, and I don't believe it is appropriate for us to expand the notability standards in application because we feel they are too stringent.--Epeefleche (talk) 16:16, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

A strict reading of policy as currently written is indeed quite harsh, and, as suggested, would exclude pretty much anyone other than Bob Woodward. But I suspect precedent and a more realistic reading of policy would lead to a different conclusion. I wasn't saying Mr Cook is the same level as BBC journalists and weather presenters who've made it under the radar - I was saying he's well above it, and deserves a page, as do all of them, per both policy and common sense. Just Google "Jonathan Cook" +Nazareth and see what you get, however simplistic that might be. Also look at all the cites and links others have provided. Most AfDs are discussions about where to find material relating to the subject. This one appears not to be. --Nickhh (talk) 22:58, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

• Comment I am under an I/P perma-ban, so I will not vote. However, this should never have come up, as the writer is well-published, has the requisite area degree from a highly reputable university, has authored several reputable books, and writes in-depth articles on the area published every other day. 'Non-notable' is plainly specious, or proof that pushing for deletion reflects either the usual writing off of sources one dislikes, or a complete lack of knowledge of the relevant literature on the I/P area. Cook's books and articles are cited in the RS secondary literature, and this alone proves that he is notable. I.e. in works by highprofile academics publishing for established university presses, like John J. Mearsheimer,Stephen M. Walt, Joel Beinin, Derek Gregory,Saree Makdisi, Lisa Hajjar (Associate Prof.Uni of California), Baylis Thomas (Professor of Political Science, University of Texas), Richard Bonney, Jeff Halper, Nur Masalha, David S. Sorenson (prof.US Air War College), Nigel Craig Parsons (Massey University), Vaughn P. Shannon (Assistant Prof. Uni of Northern Iowa), Paul McGeough (veteren I/P journalist and author), Antony Loewenstein (freelance journalist, but published by Melbourne University Press, which is a quality publisher), as well as Israelis of varying background, like Daniel Cil Brecher,Alice Rothchild, who have written well-reviewed books on the area. etc. There is no excuse for discussing deletion as an option, since the proposer did not do the required homework. I would ask those who have rushed to call for deletion to revise their vote in view of the documentable fact that JCook is frequently cited in secondary sources of high quality as an authoritative primary source. Please review The hundreds of articles in Wikipedia on journalists with no where near Cook's publishing record, whose pages have never come up for deletion, and ask yourselves why irrelevant points of policy are being nitpicked to out this I/P journalistNishidani (talk) 14:21, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
  • Compare these articles, ((Hillel Fendel,Yishai Fleisher,Yehuda HaKohen,Daphne Barak,Menashe Amir,Yoel Esteron,Itamar Ben Canaan,Imanuel Rosen,Tzipi Hotovely,Haggai Hoberman) and apply the same criteria to them. If Cook, then you guys have a backload of articles to remove from the Israeli journalist category, if you wish to prove that your objections are purely motivated by encyclopedic policies, and have nothing to do with political strategies.Nishidani (talk) 15:56, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
• Keep per Jeppiz, Mackan et al Steinberger (talk) 14:41, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
• Delete—this biography fails the Basic notability criteria, namely, that the subject was non-trivially covered in reliable secondary sources. There are only two reliable sources in the article, and the coverage therein is fairly trivial—just a few lines on the subject. I appreciate all the effort that's being made to clean up the article, but it appears that it has also seen the addition of a number of unreliable sources which should be avoided on Wikipedia altogether. —Ynhockey ^(Talk) 14:46, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Would you clarify whether you have also looked at the sources mentioned on this page, since you have gone as far as to say the subject lacks non-trivial coverage in reliable secondary sources? In the New Statesman, for instance, Neil Berry writes several paragraphs about his methods and work. In starting, "Jonathan Cook and John R Bradley are maverick British journalists who specialise in writing about the Middle East. What distinguishes them from many other western commentators is that they have gone native in the Arab world, living among Arab people and immersing themselves in Arab culture. What also makes them stand out is the way they write with a manifest determination to make a difference, and that both have made more impact outside than inside Britain." Then, "Currently resident in Nazareth, Cook exemplifies to an extreme degree the belief that when it comes to the Middle East, westerners of conscience are bound to be engaged with the Palestine/Israel conflict above all else." Then, "Cook is a writer of forensic rigour, but there is no mistaking either his moral outrage at the west's readiness to turn a blind eye to Israel's violations of international law or his black-and-white view of the Palestine/Israel conflict." Rami George Khouri writes, "Anyone interested in this issue should read an important but disturbing short book by the British journalist and author Jonathan Cook, who has reported from Israel and Palestine for the Guardian and other respected European newspapers for many years. He now lives in Nazareth, and knows Israeli and Palestinian societies intimately." If you are saying the article needs to be improved for you not to vote delete, it would help if your criteria were more clear. Mackan79 (talk) 16:25, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Some of the sources you are referring to were not present when I posted the above, making the argument irrelevant. I am however willing to change my mind if more sources are introduced (a few were since my last post, and again I appreciate the improvement drive). I am going to give it a few more days and see what happens to the article. —Ynhockey ^(Talk) 02:02, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• Delete- Delete on the condition that the article continues to be supported only by self-referential sources.ShamWow (talk) 15:04, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
  • "[S]upported only by self-referential sources."? Please check the "Notes" section.
    --NBahn (talk) 03:45, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• I was also wondering what ShamWow meant by self-referential sources. Shamwow, if you mean Cook himself as a source, there are sources that are independent of him e.g. the New Statesman article here. SlimVirgin 04:30, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• Keep. There is no reason within policy to delete this. He has written several books, has written for The Guardian, The Observer, and the International Herald Tribune, among others, is discussed by reliable sources such as the New Statesman, and has contributed a chapter, "Israel's Glass Wall: The Or Commission," to a book published by an academic press, The struggle for sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005, Stanford University Press, 2006. SlimVirgin 17:20, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
• Obvious Keep. Author of three books and contributor to a fourth, written for major newspapers, cited in numerous high-quality secondary sources. There is no question whatsoever about his notability, and I find the nomination quite bizarre A very well put together article of a freelance journalist [...] but at the end of the day, unnotable. – the article is not, in fact, "very well put together" while the subject is unquestionably notable. --NSH001 (talk) 19:16, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
• Keep. Journalist, author, sufficient outside sources. Best said above as, "There is no reason within policy to delete this." CasualObserver'48 (talk) 00:54, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
• Keep as a notable author. the books are from well known UK left-wing publishers. Journalists may be difficult to document, but authors are not. I don;t understand the reference to Pluto Press as "not exactly a respectable outfit"--it is distributed in the US by Palgrave Macmillan. I am really not sure how that evaluation, and comments like "4 links to anti-Israeli mouthpieces (EI, Islamonline, and Nur) and one more marxist "publication" give notability" can be seen as anything else but a political judgement. DGG ( talk ) 05:06, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
• Comment the subject may not appear to meet the general notability guidelines with the coverage provided. It does not appear to be a Signifigant amount coverage. Also, although the sources may be reliabile in that they are providing facts, would less biased sources give him coverage? He looks close but I certainly would not say it is an obvious keep. He is a professional writer just like people are professional [insert your occupation here]. I think this would be an obvious keep if WP:AUTHOR was met by showing that "The person has created... a significant or well-known work... that has been the subject of...multiple independent... reviews." There should be no concern if some more reviews on his books are provided (maybe like the New Statesman piece). Cptnono (talk) 07:11, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• Agree. If he is to pass, that would seem to be the only criterion in wp:author that he has a shot at meeting. BTW, I think that the article would be improved by deletion of material that is solely sourced by his bio, some of which appears as puffery, and perhaps attract greater support with such deletion, but since I'm not yet in the keep camp I'll leave it to someone in that camp to delete it, if they agree. I also note from the talk page that a) the subject of this article was previously involved with its drafting, and b) there was formerly critical commentary in the article (which could actually help his notability) from the ADL and CAMERA (I'll leave out his curious characterization of those organizations). Those criticisms no longer appear in the article. I find that troubling, and a sign, coupled with the points I made above, that POV has adversely impacted the text of this article, before by inflating his writing, and now by deleting his criticism. That's, to put it mildly, not a good thing. If someone can find that prior language and if it is from an RS restore it, that could only help his efforts to have a page on himself here.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:37, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• Presumably you saw Khouri's piece mentioned above, which notes Cook's intimacy with the cultures on which he writes. Here is another article from the Jordan Times, not a review, based on Cook's writings. Looking a bit back through Google news, I see also a passage in a story from The Herald of Glasgow here: "Last week Jonathan Cook, a writer and journalist based in Nazareth and well known for his work on the Middle East, expressed surprise that no-one has reported an even more appalling statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza; an entire population who, after weeks of bombardment in one of the most densely populated places on Earth, will doubtless be left in 'a deep, and possibly permanent, state of shock', he pointed out in an online article." For full disclosure, I see that Neil Berry, the author of the New Statesman review, has also written the following about Cook in ArabNews: "The British journalist, Jonathan Cook, makes a persuasive case that the chaos into which Iraq has descended was anything but an unintended consequence of the Anglo-American invasion. Yet Cook’s is a voice unfamiliar not just to the general public but even to the more educated sections of British society. A sometime staff writer for the Guardian who now lives in Nazareth, he operates, perforce, as an underground writer, publishing much of his work on the US online left-wing magazine Counterpunch: His trenchant analysis of the motives underlying the Anglo-American intervention in Iraq is deemed far too radical for mainstream consumption." That was in March 2008, on the other hand, months before Berry's review of Israel and the Clash of Civilisations in the New Statesman in June of that year, before The Herald's article in January of 2009, and before the Jordan Times review also in January of 2009. It was days after Khouri's review in March 2008. Looking at Wikipedia's guidelines, in any case, I'm hard pressed to think that the sum of this (along with the citations also noted above) is what is meant in our policy by "trivial." Mackan79 (talk) 08:56, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• Weak keep, the two concerns over a BLP like this are that it may bring the subject unwanted scrutiny (not an issue here since he edits it himself) and that it may be a vanity puff piece (won't be an issue here since lots of other editors are now reviewing the article). Together they balance each other out. Sherurcij ^{(speaker for the dead)} 16:49, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
• Comment An editor's comments were removed as the editor appears to be topic-banned. Fair enough, but the argument the editor made is perfectly valid. According to the editor, books and articles by Cook have been cited in secondary literature satisfying WP:RS, lending support to Cook's notability. These books and articles include works by notable academics, published by university presses, including John J. Mearsheimer,Stephen M. Walt, Joel Beinin, Derek Gregory,Saree Makdisi, Lisa Hajjar (Associate Prof.Uni of California), Baylis Thomas (Professor of Political Science, University of Texas), Richard Bonney, Jeff Halper, Nur Masalha, Antony Loewenstein. The editor also commented Cook has a notable publishing record far above several other British journalists listed in British Journalists. As for journalists operating out of Israel, the editor made the valid argument that Cook's publishing record be compared to Hillel Fendel,Yishai Fleisher,Yehuda HaKohen,Daphne Barak,Menashe Amir,Yoel Esteron,Itamar Ben Canaan,Imanuel Rosen,Tzipi Hotovely and Haggai Hoberman.Jeppiz (talk) 18:20, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Interesting comparison: A freelance reporter hailed mainly by himself, and journalists like Yoel Esteron, who is a newspaper editor & former managing editor of Haaretz, Emmanuel Rosen, who is well known newspaper commentator & TV and media personality, Menashe Amir, an Iranian affairs expert who has been a radio broadcaster for 50 years, and Tzipi Hotovely, a member of Israeli parliament. The banned editors who have jumped in to add their two cents would do well to check their facts better before namedropping.--Gilabrand (talk) 20:57, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Actually, it is a rather good comparison. Writing regularly for a major newspaper such as The Guardian or being an editor at Haaretz looks rather similar. I enjoy both papers, by the way. And the part about "hailed mainly by himself" has already been thoroughly discredited, with secondary sources in New Statesman, published by Oxford University Press etc. Let's face it, the only reason you want it deleted is because he is critical of your country at times. That is understandable, but not particularly NPOV.Jeppiz (talk) 21:06, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• Comment It is a tad weird to see Gildabrand's eagerness to censor out comments not supporting his/her POV. None of the two users whose comments Gildabrand removed took part in the vote, and they expressed themselves very carefully. Particularly weird to remove a comment that is part of discussion days afterwards but leave in the replies to it. It makes the whole thing rather incoherent.Jeppiz (talk) 20:01, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

This is starting to look ridiculous, with Gildabrand removing every second comment in a long discussion and leaving every other in. It makes no sense for a reader that way, and that kind of mindless censorship is not the intention of topic bans. Ig Gildabrand thinks that there has been a violation of a topic ban, the correct procedure would be to alert the user and an administrator, not disrupting this page in order to further Gildabrand's own POV.Jeppiz (talk) 20:35, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• I reinserted the comments. The users are not "banned" they are under a topic ban, and if Gilabrand feels that the comments are in violation of their topic ban the proper venue to voice that complaint is WP:AE, not by unilaterally removing others comments. nableezy - 21:20, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

• Keep - This guy seems to have books, articles and reviews. As I was scanning down the reference list, I was wondering why this article was nominated for deletion. If there is a concern that an article is serving as a partisan pulpit, we might scrutinize more carefully, but the article appears reasonably brief and balanced. The comment in the New Statesman that he is a 'British journalist who has gone native in the Arab world' certainly appears interesting, and suggests that reliable sources do not dismiss his work. EdJohnston (talk) 20:05, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
• Comment - I'm concerned that what seems to have been originally written as a genuine encyclopedic article about a journalist, appears to have become--through an array of edits made over the past year--an instrument to push & promote a specific POV or POINT. The purpose of a BLP encyclopedia article is to present a neutral background on a person and their life, not to use it as a form of subterfuge to "condemn" a people or nation. --nsaum75 ^¡שיחת! 21:17, 28 November 2009 (UTC)