THBT: WiKiPEDIA is a MORE RELIABLE SOURCE for INFORMATION than FOX NEWS
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
After 6 votes and with 11 points ahead, the winner is...
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 3
- Time for argument
- Three days
- Max argument characters
- 5,000
- Voting period
- One week
- Point system
- Multiple criterions
- Voting system
- Open
THBT: WiKiPEDIA is a MORE RELIABLE SOURCE for INFORMATION than FOX NEWS
DEFINITIONS:
WiKiPEDIA is "a multilingual online encyclopedia created and maintained as an open collaboration project by a community of volunteer editors using a wiki-based editing system. It is the largest and most popular general reference work on the World Wide Web. It is also one of the 15 most popular websites as ranked by Alexa, as of August 2020. It features exclusively free content and has no advertising. It is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American non-profit organization funded primarily through donations."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
MORE RELIABLE [comparative form of] RELIABLE is "better suit[ed] or fit to be relied on; more worthy of dependence, reliance or trust; more dependable, more trustworthy "
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reliable
SOURCE is "the person, place or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/source
INFORMATION is "things that are or can be known about a given topic; communicable knowledge of something."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/information
FOX NEWS is "an American multinational conservative cable news television channel. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owned by the Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Fox News provides service to 86 countries and overseas territories worldwide, with international broadcasts featuring Fox Extra segments during ad breaks."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News
BURDEN of PROOF
Wikipedia advises:
"When two parties are in a discussion and one makes a claim that the other disputes, the one who makes the claim typically has a burden of proof to justify or substantiate that claim especially when it challenges a perceived status quo. This is also stated in Hitchens's razor, which declares that "what may be asserted without evidence, may be dismissed without evidence." Carl Sagan proposed a related criterion – "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" – which is known as the Sagan standard."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy)
As instigator PRO bears the larger burden, however CON has a responsibility to affirm that FOX is more reliable than Wikipedia. PRO must show evidence that Wikipedia is more reliable than FOX. CON must show evidence that FOX NEWS is more reliable than Wikipedia.
PRO is requesting sincere and friendly engagement on this subject.
No trolls or kritiks, please.
- RULES --
1. Forfeit=auto loss
2. Sources may be merely linked in debate as long as citations are listed in comments
3. No new arguments in the final round
4. For all intents and purposes, Donald Trump may not be used as a source of information. Trump may be quoted but Trump's testimony or opinion must never be mistaken for reliable evidence
5. For all relevant terms, individuals should use commonplace understandings that fit within the rational context of this resolution and debate
- FOX starts with a political objective and organizes facts to forward that goal.
- WiKiPEDiA is a popular survey with links.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2019/12/11/fox-news-ends-2019-with-highest-rated-prime-time-ratings-ever/?sh=7e35068a3347
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
- https://www.alexa.com/topsites
- https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.fox_corporation.65e09d90908f1cd7fa2e06a43f0dc92a.html
- https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fox-news/
- https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/wikipedia/
- https://www.journalism.org/2020/04/01/cable-tv-and-covid-19-how-americans-perceive-the-outbreak-and-view-media-coverage-differ-by-main-news-source/
- https://theintercept.com/2019/09/28/impeachment-republicans-nixon-watergate/
“Wikipedia is not a reliable source. Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any time. This means that any information it contains at any particular time could be vandalism, a work in progress, or just plain wrong. Biographies of living persons, subjects that happen to be in the news, and politically or culturally contentious topics are especially vulnerable to these issues. Edits on Wikipedia that are in error may eventually be fixed. However, because Wikipedia is a volunteer-run project, it cannot monitor every contribution all the time. There are many errors that remain unnoticed for days, weeks, months, or even years. Therefore, Wikipedia should not be considered a definitive source in and of itself. "
- CON does not dispute that FOX is an instrument of the American Republican party beholden to a large number of corporate advertisers for income
- CON does not dispute that WiKiPEDiA publishes independent of any international political or corporate interest
- VOTERS should assess whether a project of hundreds of thousands of volunteer independent researchers and encyclopedists balanced by hundreds of competing individual interest is not more likely to deliver objective information than state or corporate controlled sources
- CON does not dispute that FOX's authority ultimately derives from the private interests a single carpetbagging billionaire
- CON does not dispute that WiKiPEDiA has no ultimate authority beyond the voluntary and entirely public checks and balances and uses by billions of users worldwide
- VOTERS should decide whether authoritarian approaches to journalism are more credible or more likely to promote freedom of speech than democratic systems
- PRO's III.1 pointed out that WiKiPEDiA itself warns users against over-reliance on WiKiPEDiA as a "definitive source in and of itself"
- CON repeats PRO's point but ignores the overall argument that WiKiPEDiA is nevertheless more accurate than FOX, which we saw was rated as "borderline questionable"
- Let's agree that no source is immune to error and so entirely reliable.
- VOTERS should assess which is preferable:
- A source that is cautious about accuracy and warns users up front about its limitiations
- but mostly gets its facts straight
- or
- A source that calls itself "fair and balanced" and "most trusted" but in fact is consistently rated as the least accurate news network, and regularly misreports and sensationalizes stories.
- FOX News president Roger AIles actually once falsely claimed "that in 15 years [FOX has] never taken a story down because it was wrong" which got the Washington Post noting that some false stories (like the Washington Monument tilting after an an earthquake) never get taken down or retracted.
- CON does not dispute that FOX News was created to manufacture right-bias and subjective reporting
- VOTERS should consider whether any source that prioritizes political bias can be more reliable than a source where bias is regularly challenged and considered
- CON argues that in the rarefied environment of scholarship, primary sources are considered more reliable than tertiary sources.
- PRO notes that such a statement is overly broad and does not consider that most informational needs and sources are not scholarly
- For example, a Civil War general's diary might be more reliable than an encyclopedia for confirming maneuvers or assessing troop morale but would be far less reliable than an encyclopedia for getting an accurate death count, which numbers are notoriously unreliable in the immediate aftermath of battle but generally pretty accurate once the government has counted its burials
- Traditionally, there has been an information gap in the time between the news story and the history books. PRO contends that Wikipedia uniquely addresses this gap- more accurate and more broad than daily news but far more timely than than the history books, while also documenting the evolution of the story, the timeline of the facts as they were understood
- For example, a video of a police shooting is a primary source but it doesn't contain any information about context, or important precedents of facts or antecedents of facts. The video does not offer toxicology reports or annual police brutality statistics. The primary source is ignorant of all kinds of information and inherently more biased and so less trustworthy
- Better than any other source of information, WiKiPEDiA is regularly updating and re-contextualizing major events and quickly becomes a far more reliable tertiary source than any one primary source
To accept... that Wikipedia is a more reliable source of information than Fox News, it must first be established that Wikipedia is in fact a reliable source of information.
- False, we are comparing relative reliability of two entities. No absolutes are warranted
- To accept that a bloodhound is bigger than an terrier, we don't need to establish that bloodhounds are big
- That WiKiPEDiA projects a higher standard for reliable sources than just itself improves WiKiPEDiA's reliability relative to FOX
- https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/yes-roger-fox-news-has-retracted-false-stories/329355/
- https://www.politifact.com/article/2014/jul/01/introducing-scorecards-tv-networks/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/roger-ailes-attests-to-fox-newss-factual-perfection/2012/04/13/gIQAQSi6ET_blog.html
- PURPOSE and INTENDED AUDIENCE
- AUTHORITY and CREDIBILITY
- ACCURACY and RELIABILITY
- OBJECTIVITY or BIAS
“CON argues that in the rarefied environment of scholarship, primary sources are considered more reliable than tertiary sources.”
- Roger Alles made a single false claim
- A Pew poll summary gave opinions about people based on their primary news outlet
“…although Wikipedia articles are tertiary sources, Wikipedia employs no systematic mechanism for fact checking or accuracy. Thus, Wikipedia articles (and Wikipedia mirrors) in themselves are not reliable sources for any purpose.”
- CON does not dispute that FOX is an instrument of the American Republican party
- CON concedes advertisers can create bias and asks for specifics but so long as PRO and CON agree that FOX editorial opinion demonstrates preference to non-journalistic influence while WiKi prefers no political or corporate influence, the point is proved
- Jeffrey Merkey's claim of bribing Jimmy Wales in 2008 lacks credibility
- Consider the source- Merkey remains one of WiKi's most famous trolls- he'd been permabanned 3 years earlier for "personal attacks, legal threats, harassment, disruption" and new-alts have been regularly banned since- even as recently as this summer
- WiKi has published all bans and interactions with Merkey, including the fact that his bio was never protected from editors
- CON has failed to show any monetary influence on WIki
- CON disputes "carpetbagging" but concedes that FOX's authority ultimately derives from a single billionaire
- CON argues that a non-profit CEO with no fiscal or editorial control over authorship is just as authoritarian an influence over factual reporting as direct government intervention
- That's like arguing that a democracy is just as authoritarian as a dictatorship because both have a top exec
- As we've seen with the COVID story, FOX is willing to misinform and therefore endanger it viewership to justify the current administration's inaction and with no internal checks or corrections of facts
- The advantage of WiKi is that it doesn't claim its own authority but rather points to sources like the CDC and WHO for COVID information. WiKi may not be immune to misinformation but any misinformation is constantly subject to challenge and correction (unlike FOX)
There have only been two substantial arguments made about Fox
- CON misses the point. What's more trustworthy?
- A source that cautions readers that all media is fallible and should be cross-checked
- or
- A source that inaccurately calls itself "most trusted" and denies ever getting the fact wrong
- There are hundreds of articles written about the inaccuracies of FOX with no parallel to WiKi.
- CON still does not dispute that FOX was created to manufacture right-bias and subjective reporting
- CON objects to the word "rarefied" as a substitute for addressing the point
- PRO's argument is not confined to academia. We are talking about getting accurate, non-biased information generally
- CON has applied a general rule about primary vs tertiary sources without ever showing evidence that academia prefers FOX over WiKi as an unbiased source
- CON failed to address PRO's point that may primary, first person on the spot reports are inherently less informed than the tertiary sources that collate sources and document more objectively later
- CON dropped PRO's information gap argument
- That WiKi projects a higher standard for reliable sources than just itself improves WiKi's reliability relative to FOX
PRO has brought a camel and is trying to convince us it’s a dog. There is a category error.
- CON is arguing by analogy that WIki is not a source of information at all, when 1.5 billion users have already established that WiKi is the most popular source for information history
- PRO is arguing that one particular mutt makes a better pet than one particular bloodhound and CON is arguing that in the world of dog shows, my mutt isn't technically any breed of dog
- CON's specific categorization of sources according to academic value ignores the popular use and value of information generally. VOTERS should recall PRO place no such stricture on our common definition of SOURCE or INFORMATION in spite of CON's attempts to confine our argument to such.
- VOTERS should assess whether a project of thousands of volunteer independent researchers and encyclopedists balanced by hundreds of competing individual interest is not more likely to deliver objective information than state or corporate controlled sources
- VOTERS should decide whether authoritarian approaches to journalism are more credible or more likely to promote freedom of speech than democratic systems
- VOTERS should assess which is preferable: a source that warns users up front about its limitations but works hard to self-correct or source that call itself most accurate but is consistently rated ad the least accurate source of news
- VOTERS should consider whether any source that prioritizes political bias can be more reliable than a source where bias is regularly challenged
- Thx to CON for an excellent debate
- Thx to VOTERS for their kind consideration
- Please VOTE PRO
“The term [CEO] refers to the person who makes all the key decisions regarding the company, which includes all sectors and fields of the business, including operations, marketing, business development, finance, human resources, etc.”
- PRO misses the point. Which is more a reliable source?
- A nationally recognized news outlet
- or
- A source that literally says of itself, “Wikipedia is not a reliable source”
"Wikipedia employs no systematic mechanism for fact checking or accuracy. Thus, Wikipedia articles (and Wikipedia mirrors) in themselves are not reliable sources for any purpose."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_executive_officer
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources
this is where it happened
Here's that debate.
You're welcome, even though it didn't turn out in your favor. I note, however, that you remain at the top on the leaderboard. Congratulations for that. Undefeated is not all it's cracked up to be [I can afford to say that, having lost]. The ruthlessness, fairly and nobly applied will return, I am certain.
Thank you! That means a lot coming from someone with your reputation
Thanks for voting, fauxlaw!
Thanks for voting!
Congratulations, Fruit_Inspector! Well argued.
Thank you. This site certainly does represent many schools of thought. It has been helpful in forcing me to be more consistent and clear in presenting both conservatism and Christianity.
Dang. Well done, king slayer!
I like to see good conservative debaters on the site.
now its your turn to end your win streak!
Thanks! And a 95 win streak is an amazing feat for oromagi. Like you said, that is probably the longest streak we will see.
Congratulations! You ended the longest win streak we are likely to ever see. 95 confirmed, or even 98 if you count the forgone conclusions in the voting period.
That I think this debate is deserving of attention, should only speak highly of both you and your opponent. That I deleted votes in obvious disregard for the voting standards, is nothing against you. If in the next hour or two vote bombs come in against you (I doubt it will happen, Oro isn’t the type to try to rig things) those will be deleted as well.
Ah I see. Since I did not instigate the debate, I will leave any proposed changes to be suggested by oromagi since the instigator frames the debate. While not flashy, I have no problem leaving the description as it was presented. Thanks for the suggestion though.
As a side, since it appears I will likely win, I feel like it would be hard for me to propose any changes that would not be self-aggrandizing.
ikr, and it wasn't even whiteflame who did him in.
Oro is losing!!!
NANI?!?!?!?! :O
I am gonna try to put this debate(or maybe better, even YOU) on the HoF.
This is a historic debate, and that description is kinda bland.
Ah yes. Because a debate about defining the BoP results in personal opinion on a conduct vote. DART 2020
Well I appreciate that, thank you
It shouldn't impact the debate. All the more reason to question the reason the question was posed to begin with. But given that I did promise that I would keep the commentary strictly focused on the content of the debate, let me congratulate you on a well-argued position. You, for the many reasons I already listed, were quite adept at identifying the onuses, and satisfying your own. Your arguments were concise, focused, and straight-to-the-point. Well done, Fruit_Inspector.
Don't worry, I'm not too concerned the amount of notifications. I was just wondering if I was missing some context about what impact changing the debate description would have.
He's been oddly interested in *bumping* this debate, having done it several times and then deleting his comments afterwards. If I were to guess, his question--unprompted--would be yet another attempt at *bumping* this debate during the voting period. One would imagine that if you or oromagi were concerned with the content of the short description, you would've brought it to his attention. My response to these "antics" to my chagrin have been less than savory.
Let me apologize to you, and oromagi, if my feud with the moderation has flooded you with unnecessary notifications. From here on out, I'll keep the commentary strictly focused on the content of the debate.
Just out of curiosity, was there an issue that prompted this question? I haven't read through all of the comments and am wondering if this has something to do with the controversy regarding Athias' vote, or something else. Thanks
The current short description reads: “ Required rating=1000 Anybody is welcome to accept this debate”
Would you both like it changed to any statement about this debate or something? Such changes can be easily made so long as this is still in the voting period.
""Predetermining the BoP" was something CON could have disputed, but he did not."
Neither party has to "dispute" the other person's conduct in order for it to be considered in a vote. If so, then please show me in the Voting Policy where it states that.
"There is no "unfairness" about something mutually agreed to, as long as neither party is being pressured by an outside factor."
When was it "mutually agreed"? You mean there's a tacit agreement made by both parties upon accepting the debate? Once again, according to the guideline, I DON'T HAVE to demonstrate that it was either "excessive" or in breech in of mutually agreed upon rules, so long as I can substantiate that it was unfair--an option discretely presented in the guideline, notably through the disjunction "OR."
"Your argument itself is nonsensical"
Your disagreement does not inform "nonsensical."
" your own personal whim about what a debate should or shouldn't be"
Aren't you the doing the same thing you allege that I'm doing? Weren't you the one who said debate was about "cornering your opponent"? And on whose "whim" should MY VOTE be based? I never employ "whim" when it concerns participating in or analyzing debate.
"It is literally one of the most basic functions of debate to outline what you believe to be the BoP for you and your opponent to the judge."
No, it most certainly IS NOT. Just because you see it practiced here commonly doesn't mean that it is a "basic function" of debate. The burden of proof will always be determined by the proposition itself. Satisfying the burden is contingent on the affirmation or negation.
"You're not just "interpreting things differently," you're challenging one of the well-established norms of debate."
It is a "norm" here. It IS NOT a norm of debate. And please point out where in the guidelines it expressly forbids one from "challenging one of the well-established norms..."
"BoP is defined by your POSITION & ROLE relative to the resolution (i.e. are you PRO or CON. Are you the one making the claim or the one challenging it?). This is again the implicit norm for debate, and challenging it in your vote is uncalled for."
You've just imputed a contradiction. If this is the case, then the Burden of Proof cannot be left to the outline of that which "you believe to be the BoP for you and your opponent to the judge."
You guys once again are making stuff up. I've read through the guidelines, and I've read the policies. There's nothing in them which expressly forbids my awarding conduct on that basis that I chose.
"Predetermining the BoP" was something CON could have disputed, but he did not. He accepted a debate with a BoP outlined in the description and did not dispute it in the arguments, which means he was fully consensual in that agreement.
There is no "unfairness" about something mutually agreed to, as long as neither party is being pressured by an outside factor.
Your argument itself is nonsensical and based on your own personal whim about what a debate should or shouldn't be. It is literally one of the most basic functions of debate to outline what you believe to be the BoP for you and your opponent to the judge. You're not just "interpreting things differently," you're challenging one of the well-established norms of debate.
I will also add that "the BoP is defined by the resolution" is false. BoP is defined by your POSITION & ROLE relative to the resolution (i.e. are you PRO or CON. Are you the one making the claim or the one challenging it?). This is again the implicit norm for debate, and challenging it in your vote is uncalled for.
Reason for Decision (continued):
Lastly, the Contender, albeit concise, does an adept job at clarifying the onuses they each bear by the end of third Round. PRO was attempting to move the goal post by focusing on accuracy without connecting it back to either his proposition or even his own definition (i.e. "reliable.") The Contender doubles down in round 3 and let's everyone know that over which they are debating: "Which is more reliable?" And according to the definition submitted by PRO, reliable would be described as "better suit[ed] or fit to be relied on; more worthy of dependence, reliance or trust; more dependable, more trustworthy." A definition, which should be noted was taken from "Wiktionary" which shares a parent company with Wikipedia. I say that because it is reasonable to presume that Wikipedia's definition of "reliable" would also have been taken from "Wiktionary." PRO did not do a sufficient job in meeting the description of his own definition, which suggests that the sources of information would be more "trustworthy," "dependable," etc. The contender remains focused on his burden and satisfies his onus by demonstrating that Wikipedia suggests of itself that it isn't a reliable source of information at all.
Thus, the winner of this debate in my view is without doubt, Fruit_Inspector.
Reason for Decision:
This was a rather interesting debate between PRO, oromagi, and CON, Fruit_Inspector.
Now on to the reasons for my decision.
Spelling and Grammar: They were both pretty fine with regard to this aspect of the debate.
Conduct: I award no distinction in conduct under protest.
Better sources: I also awarded the better sources point to the contender. As meticulous as PRO is in providing sources, the sources are meaningless if they do not INFORM the truth of one's position. Many of the sources PRO provided fail to account for the integrity of their own information. That is, they don't provide any methodology as to how they gauged the accuracy or inaccuracy of their subject's information, much less its reliability, "trustworthiness and dependability," the objective of this debate. Some were opinion pieces (e.g. Washington Post article.) Not to mention, particularly with the POLITIFACT links, their links to the information they cited led nowhere. It led to a page which stated, "Here's a fact: You ended up in the wrong place!" PRO did not do his due diligence in verifying his own sources. The contender on the other hand, while providing fewer sources, cited information directly relevant to his argument. And upon examining his sources, there were no dead links among them. This is clearly a case of quality over quantity, so I awarded the point to the Contender, alone.
Better Arguments: Now, it is my firm belief that CON won this in the first round. And CON won this debate by citing the apparent paradox. Wikipedia itself suggests that it isn't a reliable source of information, which CON pointed out and sourced. So logically, we can only scrutinize the affirmation or negation of Wikipedia's statement. If Wikipedia is stating the truth, then Wikipedia isn't a reliable source of information at all. (CON Wins.) If Wikipedia is stating a falsehood, then Wikipedia is on some level inaccurate (weakens PRO's argument.) PRO addresses this paradox with a non sequitur, "we are comparing the relative reliability of two entities." CON does well to address this in round two when he states, "My argument is ultimately not about where Wikipedia is compared to Fox News on a scale of source reliability. My argument is ultimately that Wikipedia cannot even be categorized as a reliable source for information. It cannot even be placed on the scale of reliability because it doesn’t belong there at all." PRO continues with the non sequitur statements in Round 3 (that Wikipedia isn't a source of information at all, WHICH CON DOES NOT ARGUE,) and CON again does well to address them.
Furthermore, PRO does not do a sufficient job at all in outlining the reason BIAS =/= reliable, OBJECTIVE = reliable, ACCURACY = reliable. He defines neither objective nor bias, which for his argument bred confusion since he used the term "objective" in two different contexts (e.g. "FOX starts with a political OBJECTIVE and organizes facts to forward that goal," and "...hundreds of competing individual interest is not more likely to deliver OBJECTIVE information than state or corporate controlled sources.") PRO continued to misrepresent CON's arguments, as well as his own sources: PRO claimed that there were HUNDREDS of articles written about the inaccuracies of FOX NEWS in Round Two, but cites an NYT article about President Trump's statements about FOX NEWS, the accuracy of which were being scrutinized, not FOX NEWS itself.
To be continued...
"The whole point of debate is to try to corner your opponent. I will restate: "Docking conduct points for Oromagi cornering their opponent through debate framework is like telling a construction worker they can not use a hammer."
No. The whole point of debate is to substantiate the affirmation or negation of a proposition. "Cornering" is for pugilism.
You guys are making up your own rules. You removed my vote because it didn't "follow" voting guidelines, and now you're subjecting my vote to a standard that's not present in the guideline. Read the guideline again: "Demonstrate how this poor conduct was either excessive, unfair, OR (once again OR) in violation of mutually agreed upon rules of conduct pertaining to the text of the debate. That means I don't have to demonstrate that it was either "excessive" or in breech of mutually agreed upon rules. I can choose anyone of those reasons, so long as I can substantiate it. And in this case, I chose to acknowledge how "unfair" it was to predetermine the "burden of proof" since it manipulates the construction of either party's argument.
You don't have to "agree" with me, but I DID EXPLAIN my reasons. And I've seen conduct points awarded in a similar fashion.
Keep in mind, the statement "As long as it fits voter guidelines." (I will also add, that under context I was specifically talking about argument point allocation. If the voter had assigned conduct willy nilly, that would have been removed too)
According to the guidelines, docking conduct generally needs to be under the pretense of a brazen and obvious violation. I read this debate, there was nothing even approaching a violation of conduct.
Like seldiora quotes from the ext. moderation policies:
"Misconduct is excessive when it is extremely frequent and/or when it causes the debate to become incoherent or extremely toxic. In the case of awarding conduct points solely on the basis of forfeits, there is an exception to these steps: a debater may award conduct points solely for forfeited rounds, but only if one debater forfeited half or more of their rounds or if the voter also awards argument points (or explains their decision not to award argument points in a manner which meets the argument points voting standards)."
The whole point of debate is to try to corner your opponent. I will restate: "Docking conduct points for Oromagi cornering their opponent through debate framework is like telling a construction worker they can not use a hammer."
"I am tired of repeating this, but it looks like I'll need to once again: users are allowed to assign points in any way they see fit as long as they adhere to DART voting guidelines.
To quote our Moderation Extended Policies and Interpretations:
"It is not moderation's job to judge the rightness or wrongness of the verdict reached. That means that interpretive differences (including what meanings can be deduced or inferred from the text) are not with the scope of reviewable content in a vote. There is one exception to this: the voter actually lying about or blatantly misstating (intentionally or not) what transpired in the debate such that no reasonable person, reading carefully, could reach the conclusion they reached."
Mods can step in to prevent decisions that are so blatantly unfair no rational person can approve of it, but otherwise our interpretive ability is severely handicapped."
When you stated this, was it a lie? Please explain how my award of conduct was "indisputably" in violation of CoC rules.
Merely waiting for Ragnar's go-ahead, but he did it before me.
"As a neutral bystander that also happens to be a voting mod, if Ragnar hadn't deleted your vote, I probably would've. We were discussing whether it was worth it to remove it, (your vote has been flagged for the past 3 days) but as for your vote being a violation of voting guidelines, that much is undisputable.
Docking conduct points for Oromagi cornering their opponent through debate framework is like telling a construction worker they can not use a hammer."
Then why didn't you? The rules state that vote of conduct must demonstrate the following:
1) identify specific instances of misconduct,
(2) explain how this misconduct was excessive, unfair, or in breach of the debate's rules, and
(3) compare each debater's conduct.
The only thing I fell short of was explicitly comparing each of their conduct. Suffices to say, that I thought it unnecessary since oromagi in my view was the only person who exhibited this particular misconduct.
**************************************************
>Reported Vote: Athias // Mod action: Removed
>Points Awarded: Arguments, sources, and conduct to con.
>Reason for Decision:
I will be copying my previous RFD in the comments
>Reason for Mod Action:
To award conduct points, the voter must:
(1) identify specific instances of misconduct,
(2) explain how this misconduct was excessive, unfair, or in breach of the debate's rules, and
(3) compare each debater's conduct.
The voter acted in such a way to suggest they did not give fair weighting to the debate content.
**************************************************
Continued bogus voting will result in revocation of voting privileges until such time as you are willing to abide by the voting policy.
Reason for Decision (continued):
Lastly, the Contender, albeit concise, does an adept job at clarifying the onuses they each bear by the end of third Round. PRO was attempting to move the goal post by focusing on accuracy without connecting it back to either his proposition or even his own definition (i.e. "reliable.") The Contender doubles down in round 3 and let's everyone know that over which they are debating: "Which is more reliable?" And according to the definition submitted by PRO, reliable would be described as "better suit[ed] or fit to be relied on; more worthy of dependence, reliance or trust; more dependable, more trustworthy." A definition, which should be noted was taken from "Wiktionary" which shares a parent company with Wikipedia. I say that because it is reasonable to presume that Wikipedia's definition of "reliable" would also have been taken from "Wiktionary." PRO did not do a sufficient job in meeting the description of his own definition, which suggests that the sources of information would be more "trustworthy," "dependable," etc. The contender remains focused on his burden and satisfies his onus by demonstrating that Wikipedia suggests of itself that it isn't a reliable source of information at all.
Thus, the winner of this debate in my view is without doubt, Fruit_Inspector.
Reason for Decision:
This was a rather interesting debate between PRO, oromagi, and CON, Fruit_Inspector.
Now on to the reasons for my decision.
Spelling and Grammar: They were both pretty fine with regard to this aspect of the debate.
Conduct: I awarded the conduct point to the Contender because it is not PRO's prerogative to DEFINE the burden of proof. The burden of proof is determined by the proposition itself. As the one who proposed the proposition, and thereby affirm its truth, it's PRO's onus to demonstrate that Wikipedia is "a more reliable source for information than FOX NEWS." Contrary to PRO's outline, CON is not only required to demonstrate that FOX NEWS is a "more reliable source of information than Wikipedia." It's the contender's onus to either negate PRO's affirmation, or demonstrate that PRO's affirmation isn't supported by sufficient evidence. The Contender can negate the argument in three ways: (1) demonstrate that Wikipedia is as reliable as FOX NEWS, and vice versa, (2) FOX NEWS is more reliable, and (3) Wikipedia isn't reliable at all. The contender chose the third option. PRO's attempt to pigeonhole the Contender's capacity in the debate, especially with a prerogative he does not have, is a demonstration of poor conduct. It creates an UNFAIR debating environment, cuffing the approaches CON can indulge to satisfy his onus as described above. This is not like presetting definitions, which establish a uniform standard of communication. This is in essence dictating how the other party is to construct his argument. My award of conduct to the contender is not a demonstration of impolite behavior on either participant given that they were both polite toward each other. It's a reflection of debate decorum.
Better sources: I also awarded the better sources point to the contender. As meticulous as PRO is in providing sources, the sources are meaningless if they do not INFORM the truth of one's position. Many of the sources PRO provided fail to account for the integrity of their own information. That is, they don't provide any methodology as to how they gauged the accuracy or inaccuracy of their subject's information, much less its reliability, "trustworthiness and dependability," the objective of this debate. Some were opinion pieces (e.g. Washington Post article.) Not to mention, particularly with the POLITIFACT links, their links to the information they cited led nowhere. It led to a page which stated, "Here's a fact: You ended up in the wrong place!" PRO did not do his due diligence in verifying his own sources. The contender on the other hand, while providing fewer sources, cited information directly relevant to his argument. And upon examining his sources, there were no dead links among them. This is clearly a case of quality over quantity, so I awarded the point to the Contender, alone.
Better Arguments: Now, it is my firm belief that CON won this in the first round. And CON won this debate by citing the apparent paradox. Wikipedia itself suggests that it isn't a reliable source of information, which CON pointed out and sourced. So logically, we can only scrutinize the affirmation or negation of Wikipedia's statement. If Wikipedia is stating the truth, then Wikipedia isn't a reliable source of information at all. (CON Wins.) If Wikipedia is stating a falsehood, then Wikipedia is on some level inaccurate (weakens PRO's argument.) PRO addresses this paradox with a non sequitur, "we are comparing the relative reliability of two entities." CON does well to address this in round two when he states, "My argument is ultimately not about where Wikipedia is compared to Fox News on a scale of source reliability. My argument is ultimately that Wikipedia cannot even be categorized as a reliable source for information. It cannot even be placed on the scale of reliability because it doesn’t belong there at all." PRO continues with the non sequitur statements in Round 3 (that Wikipedia isn't a source of information at all, WHICH CON DOES NOT ARGUE,) and CON again does well to address them.
Furthermore, PRO does not do a sufficient job at all in outlining the reason BIAS =/= reliable, OBJECTIVE = reliable, ACCURACY = reliable. He defines neither objective nor bias, which for his argument bred confusion since he used the term "objective" in two different contexts (e.g. "FOX starts with a political OBJECTIVE and organizes facts to forward that goal," and "...hundreds of competing individual interest is not more likely to deliver OBJECTIVE information than state or corporate controlled sources.") PRO continued to misrepresent CON's arguments, as well as his own sources: PRO claimed that there were HUNDREDS of articles written about the inaccuracies of FOX NEWS in Round Two, but cites an NYT article about President Trump's statements about FOX NEWS, the accuracy of which were being scrutinized, not FOX NEWS itself.
To be continued...
I can see you trying to throw the same vote back up with the same justification. You will not be able to do that unless you properly justify the conduct violation.
As a neutral bystander that also happens to be a voting mod, if Ragnar hadn't deleted your vote, I probably would've. We were discussing whether it was worth it to remove it, (your vote has been flagged for the past 3 days) but as for your vote being a violation of voting guidelines, that much is undisputable.
Docking conduct points for Oromagi cornering their opponent through debate framework is like telling a construction worker they can not use a hammer.
Good luck with that.
And please abide by the voting policy on any future votes you cast:
https://info.debateart.com/terms-of-service/voting-policy
So seldiora is not "100% convinced" that I was justified in awarding a point of conduct, and my vote is removed. I've had enough of your antics: I'm reporting you.
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>Reported Vote: Athias // Mod action: Removed
>Points Awarded: Arguments, sources, and conduct to con.
>Reason for Decision:
https://www.debateart.com/debates/2564/comment-links/32673
>Reason for Mod Action:
To award conduct points, the voter must:
(1) identify specific instances of misconduct,
(2) explain how this misconduct was excessive, unfair, or in breach of the debate's rules, and
(3) compare each debater's conduct.
The voter acted in such a way to suggest they did not give fair weighting to the debate content.
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Thank you for your work explaining the flawed conduct award.
Quote from your vote to follow:
CONDUCT:
Athias argues that “PRO's attempt to pigeonhole the Contender's capacity in the debate, especially with a prerogative he does not have, is a demonstration of poor conduct.”
However, Debate Art section for conduct says:
In order to award conduct points, a voter must explicitly, and in the text of their RFD, perform the following tasks:
*Provide specific references to instances of poor conduct which occurred in the debate
*Demonstrate how this poor conduct was either excessive, unfair, or in violation of mutually agreed upon rules of conduct pertaining to the text of the debate
*Compare each debater's conduct from the debate
Misconduct is excessive when it is extremely frequent and/or when it causes the debate to become incoherent or extremely toxic. In the case of awarding conduct points solely on the basis of forfeits, there is an exception to these steps: a debater may award conduct points solely for forfeited rounds, but only if one debater forfeited half or more of their rounds or if the voter also awards argument points (or explains their decision not to award argument points in a manner which meets the argument points voting standards).
I’m not 100% convinced by Athias’s justification. It’s entirely accepted behavior, and within good conduct, to be slightly underhanded and suggest what may be a strawman for the opponent to attempt to counter. For example, let’s say in a debate about Gun Control in the US, where I am pro. We have shared burden of proof. I claim, with no previous explanation in the description: “Con must show that getting rid of gun control policy will benefit legislation.”
Now of course, I could be fooling the opponent. It could be about morals. It could be about economics. Framing the debate one way or another, despite many different methods of attack, is not bad conduct. It could be that I consider the idea of legalization/implementation gun control policy more important than the idea of morality of gun control, or economic benefits of reducing gun control. So here I believe that Pro is trying to state that his framing considers the “random person gaining information” idea rather than “scholarly research” as con attempts. It just so happens that Con’s is actually more important, as it establishes a baseline for standard.
As such, I will be rewarding PRO conduct to negate Athias’s vote for Conduct point, and awarding CON the Argument point.
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>Reported Vote: seldiora // Mod action: Removed
>Points Awarded: Arguments to con, conduct to pro.
>Reason for Decision:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Coitgg76Y_Tl_V3KE76WdpxscdiqJuaWXMJUbs-D4JY/edit?usp=sharing
>Reason for Mod Action:
To award conduct points, the voter must:
(1) identify specific instances of misconduct,
(2) explain how this misconduct was excessive, unfair, or in breach of the debate's rules, and
(3) compare each debater's conduct.
Votes based on other votes are not allowed. In future please just report the offending vote.
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It's really happening. Whiteflame just confirmed it. Oromagi has lost his first debate.
~Insert desperate racking of brain on how to possibly satirize this here~
But we cannot give any debater the benefit of an "assumption." PRO is typically adept at presetting his definitions. Had he established a journalistic standard of reliability, or even just an academic one, then PRO would've had a fighting chance. Of course, pro would've had to demonstrate quantification because he's arguing that it's "more" reliable, not just reliable.
And notice in Round Three, CON was able to expand the concept of reliability by contradicting PRO's attempt to focus on "bias" and "accuracy" by claiming there was more to reliability. We cannot assume that reliability = (less) bias + (more) accuracy. Even if we did, the methodology which was used to examine both would still have to be present and substantiated.
If this debate was "It is more philosophically justifiable to trust in Wikipedia as a reliable source of information than Fox News", he would have to define trust because the philosophy behind trust is more complex than accuracy and bias. However, because Con agrees with Brooklyn university and tries to have Pro shoot himself in the foot, we accept that accuracy + bias form together trustworthiness as a result.
think of it this way, In a "net benefit" debate we do not debate what precisely is actual benefit. There does not need to be an inherent standard (unlike utilitarianism), but rather we evaluate the impacts of the ideals through common sense. Take UBI for example. Obviously you would want to gain 1,000$ dollars financially. The purchase power is a net benefit on its own. Now we bring the US gov in, and say, the budge increase would be a net detriment. There is no Kritik where we say we must have the budget be so great that the gov is completely destroyed, replaced with a better one, because that is simply absurd to think about. Granted, in a non net-benefit debate, we could definitely argue whether to keep the US gov structure, but destroying the entire hierarchy merely to support UBI is insane and head-scratching. Now, personally Whiteflame has told me that it may be plausible to prove in a net benefit debate about public schools, that the entire system is so broken we must completely tear it down and break it back up. But once more, the Charter school relation must be shown that it will indeed challenge the system so much that it will renovate it completely. Even though there is no "universal standard" for "benefit the quality of education" or "benefit the finance", the widely agreed upon standards create a tautology for the beneficial debates.
If the finance grows, it is presumed to be a net benefit. If education results in people learning more information, however useless, it is presumed to be good. Challenging the entire framework system only works in a legality debate, which this is not about. So we have to ... "trust in trust", if you get what I mean.
Sure he hasn't, but with only 5k of argument, it is assumed that based on Brooklyn University's basic standard of evaluating reliability that Wiki adheres to it the most. It just so happens that he wasn't able to outweigh editing problems and prove Fox's numerous errors. Even Stanford Encyclopedia (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trust/) says Trust is warranted when:
plausible, again, only if the conditions required for trust exist (e.g., some optimism about one another’s ability). Knowing what these conditions are requires understanding the nature of trust.
well-grounded, only if the trustee (the one trusted) is trustworthy, which makes the nature of trustworthiness important in determining when trust is warranted.
justified, sometimes when the trustee is not in fact trustworthy, which suggests that the epistemology of trust is relevant.
justified, often because some value will emerge from the trust or because it is valuable in and of itself. Hence, the value of trust is important.
plausible, only when it is possible for one to develop trust, given one’s circumstances and the sort of mental attitude trust is. For instance, trust may not be the sort of attitude that one can will oneself to have without any evidence of a person’s trustworthiness.
Now of course, there can be two different kinds of trust: 1. Vast majority of rational people believe in some information; 2. The fact is proved beyond reasonable doubt with axiomatic backing. As we cannot use 2 inside this debate, we are forced to deal with the subjective level of trust. The plausibility, grounded nature, and justification of the trust all lead back to emotional bias influencing ideals and accurateness of the fact. It is true that humans can be wrong about their trusted ideals, but in general, experts should be able to deduce ideas and facts better, making the research on wiki that much more reliable than the ones about fox news. Pro just failed to link it back to how knowledge's power allows wiki to win out, compared to Fox's inability to surpass even legal definition of trust. Even with Tabula Rasa in our mind, the establishment of trust is intuitively from our experiences, from gathering information, from repeatedly checking upon facts and thinking over if they are correct. Therefore, philosophically we must accept Oromagi's definition from the basis. Due to the problematic of using tertiary sources and citing the Wiki page for academia, however, Con thoroughly wins here.
But what is the standard of trust? Had PRO established some standard of "reliability" it would've served his onus better than delegating this presumed standard to outside parties like mediabiasfactcheck, forbes, New York Times, etc., the reliability of which haven't been estsablished themselves. Reliability is far too nebulous a concept to even attempt to measure. This was PRO's debate to lose from the beginning.