The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no consensus. Numerically, we're at about 15 delete to 10 keep, which is a majority but not clear consensus for deletion.

In terms of arguments, the "keep" argument is that the topic is notable because reliable sources have covered it, while the "delete" argument is that the article is an attack page created for partisan reasons, and that an article is unwarranted because all politicians lie anyway.

In my view, the "keep" arguments are stronger: WP:GNG is a widely accepted inclusion guideline and that the topic has received substantial coverage apart from Scott Morrison's other political activities has not been contested. The arguments why the page is an "attack page" are unsubstantiated: per WP:NPOV, we write what reliable sources write, and if they say that a politician lies a lot then that's what we write as well. The "attack" argument would therefore make sense only (and would warrant speedy deletion) if the contents of the article were not neutrally worded or poorly sourced, but that argument is not (substantively) being made here. Moreover, accusing other editors of partisanship and creating attack pages without good evidence violates WP:NPA and WP:AGF.

To sum up, the headcount is slightly for deletion while the arguments for keeping are quite a bit stronger than those for deletion. That being the case, there is no consensus to delete the article, and it is accordingly kept by default. Sandstein 07:47, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Veracity of statements by Scott Morrison (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)
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Attack page. Any useful material should be included at ScoMo's BLP Pete (talk) 23:10, 3 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The article is on a notable topic - Morrison's veracity has been documented and reported on by numerous reliable sources. The page's purpose is to cover what reliable sources say about Morrison's veracity, whether they be positive or negative. While much of the coverage happens to be negative, it is neither unsourced nor poorly sourced. Hypothetically, if reliable sources published positive coverage on the subject, they would be covered here. Attack pages must be both negative in tone and unsourced. The content in this article is verifiable and reliable sources are referenced.
Precedent exists for comparable pages. See Veracity of statements by Donald Trump. Combustible Vulpex (talk) 00:19, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
All politicians tell untruths. It goes with the territory. ScoMo is hardly in the same league as Donald Trump. --Pete (talk) 00:27, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The fact that there is a larger volume written about Donald Trump's veracity does not mean that Morrison's veracity is not a notable subject in its own right. Under the General Notability Guidelines, it is enough for the subject to have significant coverage in reliable sources without needing independent research. While telling untruths may be common among politicians, compared to other Australian politicians, Morrison's veracity has been covered in more detail and subject to greater debate, such that it can be regarded as a notable subject. Combustible Vulpex (talk) 02:10, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
You say that with zero authority. Do you have a RS making this claim? We have better well-referenced examples of notable mendacity in the category of recent PMs, but do we have a Veracity of statements by Juliar Gillard article? We do not. --Pete (talk) 02:30, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Whether another article exists or not is irrelevant to this discussion. Regards, --Goldsztajn (talk) 09:31, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ^ "Scott Morrison - Fact Check". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
  2. ^ "A Dossier of Lies and Falsehoods Archives". Crikey.
  3. ^ "Morrison's top 10 bare-faced lies". Independent Australia. 25 November 2021.
  4. ^ "The lie of the land: Morrison's corrosive behaviour threatens trust rebuilt during pandemic | Katharine Murphy". the Guardian. 22 November 2021.
  5. ^ Denniss, Richard (19 March 2022). "Morrison's economic lies". The Saturday Paper.
  6. ^ Mulgan, Richard (6 December 2021). "Morrison's lies mark a new low in our political discourse. Do voters care?". The Canberra Times.
  7. ^ "Scott Morrison Called 'Hypocrite and Liar' in Leaked Texts By Political Allies". thediplomat.com. 8 February 2022.
  8. ^ "Barnaby Joyce not the first to call Scott Morrison a liar". The New Daily. 6 February 2022.
There's clearly enough for the topic to be notable in and of itself. Regards, --Goldsztajn (talk) 09:31, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
It is not an encyclopedia article. It's an exposé. These are two completely different styles of writing, and you can't simply call it encyclopedic and expect people to be fooled any more than you can cook an egg and call it fried chicken. The definition of exposé is: "report that reveals the shocking truth about something". That's what Chris Hanson from Dateline does. Encyclopedias just don't do that without being laughable. As in all exposés, despite the misleading name, the subject of this article is lying. That's a verb, not a noun, and information on lies he may have told belong in his article. Like Frickeg says below, it's an NPOV nightmare. Let me ask you, have you included any truths he may have told? Zaereth (talk) 03:39, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
As has already been stated elsewhere, should there be positive coverage of Morrison's veracity by relevant news sources or publications, that is within the scope of the article. Have you done a simple search for any notable commentary of truths he has told? I don't see many notable sources praising how honest he is, but you or any other editor is welcome to add such commentary should you find it.
Whether or not any relevant truths have been included here can be a matter for discussion, but not here. That is an issue for the article's Talk page, not AfD. Anyways, I'll indulge you on your last point briefly for the sake of the discussion. Also, see this section which includes statements by Barnaby Joyce which actually praise his veracity, as well as this section, which includes positive commentary by Josh Frydenberg. Combustible Vulpex (talk) 04:41, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The existence of the article creates the NPOV problem, not the content. A similar article could be written and adequately sourced for the vast majority of politicians (I imagine there would be sufficient sourcing for most Australian PMs and all US presidents at a minimum). But the existence of the article is in and of itself a statement, and thus it is inherently against WP:NPOV. Frickeg (talk) 07:53, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Responding here to both this comment and your comment above. The article itself does not pass a value judgement about Morrison's truthfulness - it merely reports on a value judgement that has been made by a consensus of other reliable sources. It would be a breach of NPOV for the article to consist of original research that made this judgement on its own. On the other hand, if a majority of reliable sources all appear to make the same value judgement (which lets say is the judgement that Morrison's truthfulness is out of the ordinary) then to have an article documenting and analysing that phenomenon should not be considered a breach of NPOV. NPOV does not prevent articles from being written about topics where majorities have passed a value judgement. To interpret NPOV in such a way is too simplistic and would prevent articles from being written about many noteworthy topics. For instance, the article titled Propaganda in China can exist without breaching NPOV even though messaging being considered propaganda implies a value judgement has been made about it. The same could be said about the article Enron Scandal, for something to be a scandal implies that it is wrong and outrageous. The existence of these pages and others like them imply that some value judgement is involved but they can still be written in a way that is compliant with NPOV. Combustible Vulpex (talk) 13:31, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
What you're suggesting is untrue, this is the only account I own or have owned. I am a Newcomer and have learned to use the interface through those past edits and reading various guides. This should be apparent from the formatting mistakes I made while putting up the article. If you think I am a banned user or using an alt-account then there are other channels to raise that and you should take that discussion there rather than cast aspersions here. You should be focusing on the content itself, not the editor.Combustible Vulpex (talk) 00:55, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I too, am curious about that. But an SPI, would be required. GoodDay (talk) 14:29, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
No offense intended, but in my opinion even a controversy section becomes an NPOV problem for the same reason. Not only do people incorrectly use the word "controversy" ("a widespread public debate", not simply anything negative about a subject) merely walling it off in its own section or article creates an intrinsic unbalance. I like the analogy of a UPS plane. Before they load cargo on a plane, they first load it into sections called "igloos" (due to their shape). They carefully weigh each igloo, to make sure they are all balanced, regardless if one has a million packages or just one. If they load all the heavy stuff into just one igloo, the whole plane will be off balance and go down in flames. This isn't much different from WP:BALANCE and WP:WEIGHT, and other aspects of NPOV and NOR, including synth. Instead of walling it off in its own section, information should like this should be distributed throughout the subject's article in its proper place in the timeline of events. Same info, but now the article is balanced. Zaereth (talk) 03:29, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I agree the Trump "article" should be deleted as well, but I'm not going to nominate it. If someone else wants to, I'll put in my two cents. With Trump, he's a bit of a special case, in that I don't think anyone could ever accuse him of lying. I don't think he could pull off a lie with a script, cue cards, and props. The man simply has no filter; whatever goes through his mind comes out his mouth. As much as I've never liked him, even before politics, I do believe that is the one thing that made him so attractive to so many people who are on neither side. Everything he says may be completely wrong, but at least you know it's what he truly believes, and to those people this exposé will only serve to reinforce their support of him; opposite to its intended purpose. Without careful thought, sometimes these things just backfire in the face of their creators. Zaereth (talk) 20:34, 10 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.