A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.
The Wikipedia community recently engaged in a spirited debate over whether Fox News is a reliable enough source to use as a citation in entries on the encyclopedia. Dozens and dozens of editors, all of whom are volunteers, weighed in for what was a lively online discussion. Some argued in favor of Fox News. Others argued against. Some found themselves on middle ground.
The debate, however, came to an end earlier this week. On Tuesday, a panel of three administrators — who are also volunteers, but who go through a rigorous vetting process to acquire admin powers — issued a ruling. The administrators said that there was “no consensus regarding the reliability” of Fox news. Because of that, the three administrators said Fox News “should be used with caution” by editors “to verify contentious claims” related to politics and science.
On Wikipedia’s perennial sources page, Fox News — which was previously a green-level source - is now categorized as a yellow-level source with the administrators’ note attached to it. The three administrators told me in a joint statement that the ruling “will likely have little effect on the majority of articles,” given that Fox News is often used to support entries unrelated to politics or science.
But, the editor’s added, “Use of Fox News in these two areas, however, will be carefully scrutinized; it can still be used, but likely only when there are additional sources to corroborate or if it is clearly marked as opinion or biased. In other words, prior to this discussion an editor would need to make an argument why not to use a Fox News source, but now the expectation that any disputes will require the person wanting Fox to be the primary source/reference will have to make the argument for inclusion.”
A spokesperson for the WikiMedia Foundation, the charitable organization that hosts Wikipedia, explained in part, “The outcome is a guideline for editors to use caution when citing Fox News on two subjects; for other subjects Fox News is generally considered reliable.”
That these guidelines now exist for Fox News doesn’t reflect particularly well on the network. I reached out to a spokesperson for Fox News, but didn’t hear back.
