Suggestion: Expand the inclusion standard 'published by a reliable source' and 'verifiability'
'The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—that is, whether readers are able to check that material added to Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source.'
Historically an encyclopedia is considered to be more accurate than a media article. Wikipedia has grown up and should not have an inferiority complex. Most Wikipedia articles are far better and more accurate than media articles. It should be more clearly stated what should be done when published "reliable" media sources say opposite things or are contradicted by other significant quality sources.
The phrase 'not truth' gives me the creeps and is subject to obvious abuse.
Following is the 1st principle from 'The Elements of Journalism — What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect': 1. JOURNALISM'S FIRST OBLIGATION IS TO THE TRUTH
This does not have to be Wikipedia's 1st principle, but Wikipedia is too good a thing not to recognize this standard. How could this principle be more included?
It should not be "more included": it should be fought tooth-and-nail. Wikipedia aims to provide knowledge: information and facts. The Truth has to be kept out of Wikipedia; every editor should realize that Truth = PoV; each and every Truth should be presented in its proper context. - Brya 05:49, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm not sure you understand the NPOV policy. If the truth is -- as you say -- a point of view (I do not agree) then it should still be included, not excluded. However, I would not go so far as to say non-truth should also be included, because I reject the premise that truth is always a point of view. In some subjects, it is, such as matters of opinion like aesthetics and nationalism. But truth is objective in mathematics, including statistics. We can summarize subjective truth(s) when more objective measures are not apparent.
TRUTH does not exist. We can not decide who occupied the Palestine - Jews and Arabs. We can not write the TRUTH that the Palestine belongs to Israel, or that it does not belong to Israel. Just to take an example.
The NPoV-policy is aimed at excluding TRUTH; every Truth should be stripped of its pretensions and presented in its proper context.
And of course, mathematics is a separate case; mathematics is a universe by itself, or rather a collection of separate universes. Indeed you can say "this is mathematically true", but that does not necessarily mean much, in practice. This actually is not much different from religion: every religion has its own Truths, which are only true within that religion. - Brya 06:22, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
