User:Benjaminpinsky/sandbox

Wikipedia Article Evaluation: University of Michigan Basketball Scandal

Benjamin Pinsky

Wikipedia has long been debased by the claim that it provides incorrect information, but its article on the “University of Michigan basketball scandal” provides useful and legitimate sources, remains neutral, and is well written. When presenting the fact that “Robert Traylor, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, and Maurice Taylor were cleared in October 1997,” the author utilizes three separate sources. All three citations from the Ann Arbor news have a functioning link and a history of reliable reporting in the Ann Arbor area. All three articles verify the aforementioned fact. Though it stems from a single source, the multiplicity of the fact within the source points to multiple rounds of scrutiny which the fact must have sustained by a neutral editor or team of editors. The Wikipedia article also cites the New York Times to support the article’s claim that  “Webber's sanction [on incoming donations and recruiting assistance] ended on May 8, 2013.” The Wikipedia article goes on to cite ESPN Internet Ventures, Sports illustrated, and countless other credible sources in order to verify the myriad of factual claims presented by the article. The variety of legitimacy presents the narrative that the Wikipedia article is deeply rooted in fact or at least well supported claims.

There were little to no distractions from the titular topic within the article. The closest inclusion to off topic which the article contained was the line “At the stroke of midnight when the disassociation ended, Webber tweeted "OK!!!".” Though not off topic, the argument could be made that this line adds nothing to the article as a whole, but it also detracts nothing. Not only does it not detract anything it also presents the reader with two more threads to follow to unravel the truth. The rest of the article provides relevant details to the topic which allow the reader to ascertain accurate information quickly and easily. Oftentimes, certain sources can take advantage of their audience’s tendencies to read quickly or overlook certain persuasive rhetoric in order to achieve the goal of convincing the audience into a specific bias. This wikipedia article stays neutral in a topic as controversial as The University of Michigan’s Basketball Scandal. An example of this neutrality is in the article’s presentation of the following:

“On March 21, 2002—after almost three years of testimony—the grand jury returned an eight-count indictment charging Martin, his wife Hilda and their friend Clarence Malvo with running an illegal gambling business at the Ford River Rouge plant, money laundering and conspiracy to launder money. According to the indictment, Martin made illicit loans totalling $616,000 to Webber, Taylor, Bullock and Traylor to launder money from an illegal numbers game at Detroit–area auto plants.”

This could easily have been presented with a high level of bias by adding judgemental words or phrases dealing with the morality of the act, but instead the author does not insert himself into the article allowing it to remain factual. The author also made sure to note that the claim that illicit notes were made by Martin was based solely off of the indictment. This addition makes the claim falsifiable based on the precipitation of new evidence. The article is a sound history of the scandal. Though improvements could be made, the article remains a credible pool of information for people to draw from about the incident.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia. Accessed September 20, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Michigan_basketball_scandal#cite_note-14.