Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 392

The following discussion is an archived record of a request for comment. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

What best describes The Daily Telegraph's news coverage of transgender topics?

• Option 1: Generally
  reliable
  for factual reporting
• Option 2: Unclear or additional considerations apply
• Option 3: Generally
  unreliable
  for factual reporting
• Option 4: Publishes false or fabricated information, and should be
  deprecated

gnu57 13:35, 11 November 2022 (UTC) — Note: An editor has expressed a concern that editors have been canvassed to this discussion. (diff)

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Context: The Telegraph

Note that recent discussions in article Talk where questions have been raised about the coverage in question include several discussions visible at Talk:Mermaids (charity), as well as this discussion on transgender medicine. Newimpartial (talk) 19:23, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Discussion: The Telegraph

• Option 1. This is a standard
  biomedical information, much in the same way that we should not use the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for claims relating to human biomedical information.— Red-tailed hawk _(nest)
  14:00, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
• This seems to be trying to get a simple answer to a complex question. Reliability on a single issue (such as transgender) is not necessarily determined at editorial level, and could be down to the columnist. The Sunday Telegraph has a different editor. Transgender issues vary over social, legal and medical matters. We already have
  WP:MEDRS
  which does not regard the popular press as reliable sources for biomedical information, so to the extent that a transgender issue is biomedical, it shouldn't be used at all. Of the three sources published recently, The Telegraph is the most problematic wrt transgender issues. Its editorial stance is strongly hostile to transgender rights. It publishes trans-hostile articles nearly every single day, and sometimes many on one day. As I posted elsewhere on the 3rd November, a glance at the previous day's news, 2nd November, produced for anti-trans articles:

• Daniel Radcliffe is surely the world’s most ungrateful man: The actor has once again sought to cancel his creator JK Rowling for believing that women are women and trans women are trans women
• Transgender criminal makes history by appearing in court as both a man and a woman: Offences committed by Alan and Alannah Morgan - the same person - heard at Dundee court
• Nicola Sturgeon’s trans crusade will cost her dearly: By allowing herself to be captured by extremists, she has united both nationalists and unionists against her
• Data on trans BBC staff to be collected by Ofcom: Regulator seeks to better understand gender identity of employees at major broadcasters (if you read other sources on this, gender identity is one of many changes in recent diversity questionnaire, which affects all broadcasters, not just the BBC, but trans, and the hated BBC are the only ones to make the title of the Telegraph article).

Given the small number of trans people and the fact that we are in the middle of an economic crisis, political turmoil and a war in Europe, this does suggest the Telegraph has entirely lost its head wrt transgender. The Telegraph routinely uses the transphobic shibboleths such as "transgender lobby" and "extreme trans ideology" or "gender ideology". This is a newspaper that regards the mainstream medical profession as extremists. I think it should be regarded as a radically trans hostile publication and treated accordingly wrt reliability and weight. -- Colin°^Talk 14:33, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

So you're here to

WP:INCIVIL to express this with a link to the tendentious editing policy, but removing the comment entirely would get rid of context.Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 03:13, 23 November 2022 (UTC)Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to

|Chess}} on reply) 15:41, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Chess em, I'm not entirely sure what planet this accusation belongs on, but the one where I didn't create these three RFCs is the one the rest of us are on. Have you received your discretionary sanctions warning about this topic, because comments like that are an easy way to earn a topic ban. -- Colin°^Talk 17:20, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

@

WP:GGTF

) and these sorts of discussions is part of the reason why.

You said The Daily Telegraph "should be regarded as a radically trans hostile publication and treated accordingly wrt reliability and weight" partially because "we are in the middle of an economic crisis, political turmoil and a war in Europe".

I don't really see the point of these comments that say we should consider reliability of sources based on how many pro/anti-trans opinion pieces they publish.

newspapers of record

and are both the definition of a reliable source.

You've said in another comment in this discussion that "The real question is not whether the Telegraph consistently makes up untrue trans stories, but whether its coverage on the matter is more like a pamphlet from a hate group than reporting one might expect in a broadsheet newspaper." You're acknowledging that you're not commenting about the topic of the RfC, which is whether or not The Daily Telegraph is reliable for factual reporting.

The thing that virtually all pamphlets from hate groups have in common is that they're full of fabrications about a group they wish to defame. If The Daily Telegraph is fabricating stories on transgender people and promoting false information such as the LGBT grooming conspiracy theory or the litter boxes in schools hoax, then say so. I don't see that here. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 18:37, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

What you're missing here is the context of several protracted disputes about due weight with respect to the Telegraph and Times' reposrting on transgender issues. This RFC was started in response to one of those higher up on this page, so regardless of what the formal question reads, this is not just about factual reliability. There is also a connection between these two issues, as noted by Tamzin on Talk:Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People: a source focusing on something can be taken as a statement of fact regarding which their reliability is relevant: the statement "this is a thing worth discussing". ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 18:48, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

No, it's not "regardless of what the formal question reads". This is an RfC. Those who create an RfC are allowed to choose the question, and it's expected that they choose a question that accurately reflects the underlying dispute.

Secondly, the onus is on you to provide this mysterious context if it is so crucially necessary for me to base my !vote on. Not just make vague references to something that happened higher up on this massive notice board.

If people are creating RfCs to inaccurately designate sources as unreliable because it gives an advantage in

WP:DUEWEIGHT discussions, that's very concerning and I hope that's not what is happening here. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to

|Chess}} on reply) 19:09, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Why are you assuming that the RFCs were started by someone wishing to designate these sources as unreliable? On the SOC8 talk page, gnu57 has advocated for inclusion on material sourced from these and called them top-tier, mainstream RS. ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 19:13, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

@Maddy from Celeste: I assumed that because I presume someone starting an RfC on a generally reliable source wants to designate it as unreliable.

Regardless, this is still a top-tier mainstream RS. And if this RfC was created in bad faith to gain an advantage in some dispute I have no knowledge of, then that's a larger issue. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 19:27, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

I have linked some of the related disputes at the top of each source's section head. Newimpartial (talk) 20:03, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Actually, in addition to being a personal attack,

WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS is deeply ironic. That linked guide ensures we represent "the balance of informed opinion" and show the door to people campaigning for fringe viewpoints in science and medicine. Hmm. If you read about WPATH in the BMJ, NEJM, Lancet and other mainstream medical sources, they are referred to as an authority, a collection of professional consensus, and their guidelines widely followed. Their guidelines, like those from NICE or the DSM are of course subject to medical disagreement and change over time. But they represent consensus medical opinion, which is the highest form of MEDRS. And here we have the Telegraph claiming the organisation is a "controversial lobby group" and their "extremist guidelines" are "widely discredited", quoting the words of an actual extremist lobby group (For Women Scotland) founded by a few random people with strong views but no actual qualifications. As the Telegraph reports, they want Scotland's only specialised gender identity clinic, part of that very mainstream healthcare service calld the NHS, to be closed down. Does that sound like a group and a newspaper who are trying to RIGHT GREAT WRONGS. Yup. If this was covid, we'd have blacklisted them long ago. -- Colin°^Talk

21:27, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

@

WP:ATTRIBUTE the opinion to For Women Scotland. That means that The Daily Telegraph is not directly endorsing this point. You're also not telling the entire truth on what that source is saying. The term "controversial lobby group" is never used in the article; the article calls WPATH a "controversial trans group". Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to

|Chess}} on reply) 21:57, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

So I conflated "lobbying group" and "controversial trans group". The difference between editorial voice and attribution does not make my "point meaningless", which is that the article and the lobby group they extensively quote is campaigning to discredit a mainstream medical organisation, a mainstream medical consensus guideline and shut down a mainstream medical organisation's clinic that gives treatment to a group they are hostile towards. I'm not the one righting great wrongs here, it is the editors who are proposing Wikipedia push the views of this fringe group, and the papers and journalists who are fully aligned with them. That's where you went very wrong. As in "I embarrassed myself on the internet" kind of wrong. I think you should stop digging.

Attribution can be used to distance a statement from that of the journalist or editorial view. Here it is not being used for that purpose, but in a "here, let me make my point by quoting a group you'll have heard of (in Scotland anyway)". It gives weight to the journalist's argument (which is clear). They extensively quote one side, and the mainstream medical side is handled through leaked recordings and unspecified sources and only to cast negativity upon them, never to actually give their side.

If a newspaper was covering an issue involving educational support for children in ethnic minorities and refuges, would your first thought be to interview a white Scottish person who had founded "White Scotland"? Would you perhaps think that although this group has strong opinions about ethnic minorities and refuges, they probably know diddly squat about education or about the difficulties those groups face in our education system. It is therefore very telling that this is exactly what the Telegraph did here, but for trans. -- Colin°^Talk 10:44, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

@Colin: Could you elaborate on what you meant by That's where you went very wrong. As in "I embarrassed myself on the internet" kind of wrong. I think you should stop digging. Specifically, what will happen if I don't "stop digging"? Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 23:30, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

@

WP:DOXXING), I'm going to ask that you strike or remove that part of your comment. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to

|Chess}} on reply) 18:33, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

You seem to be managing just fine all by yourself, not sure why you think I need to make any threats. -- Colin°^Talk 22:01, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

@

WP:AE for a topic-ban or strike the part of the comment where you threatened it. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to

|Chess}} on reply) 00:06, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

The first and third pieces you've linked are clearly labeled as "comment" (i.e.

WP:RSEDITORIAL

). That guideline notes that [e]ditorial commentary, analysis and opinion pieces, whether written by the editors of the publication (editorials) or outside authors (invited op-eds and letters to the editor from notable figures) are reliable primary sources for statements attributed to that editor or author, but are rarely reliable for statements of fact (internal links omitted). Take that as you will.

The objection you're placing on the second piece's factual accuracy is... what exactly? Are you arguing that Morgan did not actually appear in court for crimes that occurred both before and after transition, or that The Telegraph misrepresented the criminal proceedings in some way?

The objection you're placing on the fourth article is a classic case of

headline or if you think that something in the article is actually false. — Red-tailed hawk _(nest)

15:57, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

I didn't vote and I've already noted several times that I think this is trying to oversimplify a complex problem. The complex problem is of course editors who don't understand

WP:VNOT

and who care not for your nuance about article type and who have in all the recent discussions said effectively that if the Telegraph, a newspaper of note no less, finds something important then we must include it. I listed the above articles merely to note that any national newspaper that thinks running four anti-trans stories of a Wednesday is a balanced and proportional way to report the day's news and events has lost its way. I think participants should be aware of the purpose their vote will be used for. The three sections were created in good faith but also in naivety that votes within this topic domain end up as much more than a popularity count to see how many on each side of the culture war turn up combined with the roulette wheel of opinions of random people on the internet. And as we've already seen above, this topic attracts personal abuse. The real question is not whether the Telegraph consistently makes up untrue trans stories, but whether its coverage on the matter is more like a pamphlet from a hate group than reporting one might expect in a broadsheet newspaper. A statement in our articles on trans issues sourced to the Telegraph is highly likely to be undue and incomplete in important biased ways. I think this is the wrong forum to deal with that, but it is where we are.

What got us here is a debate about

WPATH guidelines Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People. And the Telegraph article is this one

.

• Our article on WPATH describes it as a "a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and gender dysphoria, and creating standardized treatment for transgender and gender variant people". The Telegraph describes it as a "controversial trans group" and cites critics (rather than, you know, actual doctors) who claim it is "little more than a lobbying group, set up to legitimise an extreme form of gender ideology".
• Our article on the guidelines describe it as "an international clinical protocol" that "often influences clinicians' decisions regarding patients' treatment. While other standards, protocols, and guidelines exist – especially outside the United States – the WPATH SOC is the most widespread protocol used by professionals working with transgender or gender-variant people.". The Telegraph describes it as "extreme guidelines" and a "widely discredited treatment protocol". And there is much nonsense about the NHS "secretly use[ing]" these guidelines, as well as prurient content that I have no interest in repeating.

So, no, I don't think we can use the Telegraph for sourcing this topic as their standard news reports, in this case by their Scottish Correspondent, are so rabidly frothing as to be on a different world. -- Colin°^Talk 18:01, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

-- Colin°^Talk 18:01, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

If people are misusing commentary as a source for facts, then that's an issue with the editors, not the reliability of the organization's news reporting. And, for what it's worth, I would caution us against being overly broad in assigning a particular bias to all of The Telegraph's op-ed/editorial content as anti-trans; the paper won won a Chairman's Award in The 2019 Press Awards for columnist Diana Thomas's regular column in which she wrote about her experience transitioning from male-to-female as an adult. I think there's a bit more nuance to the publication's editorial decision making than merely pumping out anti-trans stories. — Red-tailed hawk _(nest) 06:17, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

random people on the internet ouch  :(

Reading this, I thought: "finally, a good example of factual inaccuracies". But sadly, no. "controversial trans group" is only in the headline (which we consider unreliable). "extreme guidelines" similarly comes only from the headline. "widely discredited treatment protocol" was a quote from someone they describe as a critic. And there isn't "much nonsense about" "secretly", that's just used a single time in the headline. DFlhb (talk) 08:33, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Bias is not an issue. Slatersteven (talk) 15:25, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

The "extreme guidelines" phrase is from a headline, as is "secretly use[ing]"; we don't use headlines from any source. The "widely discredited treatment protocol" is not a description made by The Telegraph; they very clearly attribute it to a representative of a campaign group (it's even in quotation marks). EddieHugh (talk) 21:02, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

I'm not proposing we use those words so our guidelines on using them is not remotely relevant. I mentioned them because they reflect the paper's language they think is fit for describing mainstream medicine. Quotes or not, they only quote Trina Budge, who's medical qualifications are founder of anti-trans pressure group For Women Scotland. Colin°^Talk 21:11, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

"they only quote Trina Budge"... this is also incorrect. They quote WPATH guidelines, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, an unnamed "senior clinician", a "probe" of some kind, the NHS, the Scottish Government... and Trina Budge. EddieHugh (talk) 21:25, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

That is the only person they directly quote. The others seem to involve "stuff I dug up" and vague attribution or "leaked" material. Look, if a crank website quotes Dr Crank for his extensively negative views about the WHO or the NHS in a way that is fully supportive of Dr Crank for helping make the case for the journalist, we don't waste our time wondering if some of this negative nonsense about the WHO or NHS is in a headline (I really do boggle at the desperation of that argument made by a few people above) or is editorial or attributed text. We look at it as a whole. I don't know which part of mainstream organisation and mainstream consensus guidelines and mainstream NHS clinic is not clear and how the description of those three things in this article is on another planet from reality. -- Colin°^Talk 11:03, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 1 No evidence has been provided that this
  WP:RSEDITORIAL applies here as The Daily Telegraph clearly distinguishes between opinion pieces and news reporting. A newspaper that reports true facts should be considered reliable. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to
  |Chess}} on reply) 18:42, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1 and suggest SNOW closing this. If there is any question of an RS with unreliable coverage in one area, that needs to be first discussed and unresolved on talk pages before opening such discussions. --Masem (t) 18:53, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  The Telegraph's trans-related coverage has been discussed at length many, many times on talk pages. ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 18:58, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Then those cases should be brought up as evidence of why it should be changed. The three RFCs on this are all RSes in a broad sense so you will have to show with strong evidence that their factual reporting around trans issues is fundamentally bad (eg how the Fox News limits on politics and scientific reporting were determined to be bad). Masem (t) 19:01, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Or to put it another way, show some examples of them making stuff up, not bias, lies. Slatersteven (talk) 19:03, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Please see my above reply to chess. The RFC wording may be about factual reporting, but the underlying dispute fundamentally concerns bias and due weight. ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 19:05, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Which are not RS issues they are

  wp:undue issues. This is solely about are they an RS, bias is not part of the equation, only factual accuracy. Slatersteven (talk

  ) 19:22, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Please see my !vote below. There is a point beyond which one-sided coverage is essentially unreliable, and coverage of transgender issues by The Times and The Telegraph is far beyond this point. Otherwise there would not be critical scholarship addressing this coverage in particular. Newimpartial (talk) 19:32, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  If we take what has been presented re the bias of these papers, then we need to apply the same principle across a wide range of RSes for a wide range of topics, such most mainstream US paper on politics in the US. Which, no, is not going to happen.

  We have to understand that bias on a topic is not a reason to make a source unreliable. It is when that bias causes a source to purposely falsify the news (read: Fox News, Daily Mail) that we should take action. That's simply not shown, just that these papers tend to focus on a position that is seen as anti-trans. Masem (t) 16:11, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

  Wrt making stuff up, the WPATH and their Standards of Care are mainstream consensus guidelines by professionals in the field. The Telegraph writes like a covid crank, claiming they are extremist and discredited. This is simply not true in the medical profession, only among gender critical writers (none of which are experts in the field). Taking the same attitude, here's how the Telegraph would write about covid: "The so-called World Health Organisation, more like World Unhealth Organisation, released controversial guidelines on treating covid that promoted anti-viral therapy. Clinging to the extremist germ-theory ideology, they ignore ivermectin and injectable bleach. The NHS are leaving our children and elderly vulnerable to the death rays from 5G mobile masts." Thats what, as a MEDRS author and long-term WP:MED member, the Telegraph sounds like to my ears. -- Colin°^Talk 20:39, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

"here's how the Telegraph would write about covid"... to be clear, that's not how they wrote about covid, is it? EddieHugh (talk) 21:06, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

With respect to making stuff up, you're the person writing false quotes from The Daily Telegraph about COVID-19 like that has any relevance to this discussion. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 18:35, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 2 - the biases of this broadsheet in its coverage of transgender rights issues have been repeatedly noted in scholarly and other high-quality sources, which is pretty much the definition of additional considerations apply. For example, peer-reviewed scholarly source concludes as follows:

The fact is that the trans community is so rarely given a platform in any form of mainstream media, that the “debate” surrounding their rights rarely includes trans people at all—as evidenced by the exclusion of trans voices in the articles from The Times and The Telegraph. Hence, trans people are dehumanised and denaturalised as their identity is debated and used for political fodder.

• I wouldn't mind if this filing were closed as premature, however, since the editor filing has not linked to any of the previously presented evidence or prior discussions on the topic, and this seems to be a "gotcha" filing intended to precipitate !votes from editors who haven't seen any of the relevant commentary and who would precipitate an ill-informed SNOW close that could then be used as a cudgel to insist that the coverage of trans issues by The Telegraph is unproblematic, when high-quality sources on the topic suggest the opposite. Newimpartial (talk) 19:12, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  +1 ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 19:14, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Washington Post that:[9]

  Findings reveal that pregnancy loss coverage reproduces essential and racialized notions of women as domestic, submissive, pious, and pure; reinforces problematic postfeminist rhetoric; and sensationalizes women’s grief in the service of profits. The main contribution of this study is the finding that journalists are perpetuating heteropatriarchal and post-racial ideology in service of the narrative of U.S. exceptionalism by framing miscarriage as an exclusively devastating experience.

  Now maybe it's possible that the NYT and WaPo are both racist and heteropatriarchal organizations that shouldn't be trusted on women's issues, or Feminist Media Studies is a rather biased journal. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 19:52, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Much as I don't want to encourage editors to free-base source criticism as a general rule, O will point out that the exclusion of trans voices is rather better-demonstrated in the article I linked than racist heteropatriarchy is supported in the article you linked. I don't believe anyone ought to be using one article's publication to discredit the other. Newimpartial (talk) 20:08, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  @Newimpartial: If you don't believe in using one article's publication to discredit the other, what are we doing at RSN? This entire board is centered around analyzing reliable sources, but let's grab a pull quote from the very article you posted:

  this paper fills a gap in research on the “quality” newspapers, which are uniquely situated to manufacture the consent necessary for white supremacist capitalist patriarchy because their perception as the gatekeepers of “good” journalism and reliable news means that they are able to authorise certain worldviews and illegitimate others.

  Does using the term "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" sound a little biased or

  WP:FRINGE to you? By that article, we may need to designate The Daily Telegraph as being on the same level as The Daily Stormer given that both wish to uphold white supremacy according to the source you've provided. Or maybe it's possible that Feminist Media Studies exaggerates how extremist publications really are given that they just accused The Times of supporting white supremacy. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to

  |Chess}} on reply) 21:39, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Is it common practice at RSN to take one article a peer-reviewed journal has published and use that as an argument to deprecate all other articles pubished by that journal? Because that's what I meant by using one article's publication to discredit the other.

  And to answer your other question: using the phrase "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" does not work for me as a "gotcha" that discredits arguments made in that same article that do not depend on the existence of white supremacy or patriarchy. But clearly YMMV. Newimpartial (talk) 21:46, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

• While I highly respect feminist media studies scholarship, and don't disagree with that paper's perspective (I'll note I'm trans myself, and very familiar with these arguments in general, though not with specific arguments about The Telegraph), the paper states that it bases its analysis on feminist critical discourse analysis. That's a branch of critical theory and critical literature studies, which I must point out is are rather fringe within radical segments of academia.

Part of my degree was in critical theory; all I can say is that it doesn't strive to be objective or "reasonable". I'm emphatically not criticizing it: it's radical, as it very well should be, as its entire goal is to operate outside of societal narratives and cultural assumptions so it can effectively question them and bring new insights. But while it very much is credible, thoughtful scholarship, it would be a category error to see critical studies, as some kind of unbiased, neutral analysis, the same way that, say, scholarship about trans healthcare is neutral and unbiased. Critical studies fields are unabashedly radical, much to their credit, but we should be very mindful of how to use or interpret them.

To give a slightly off-topic but highly revealing example, several of my uni friends have degrees in both accounting and critical accounting studies (a fascinating field for which we lack a Wikipedia article); in the latter, they learned all the ways in which accounting is complete bullshit, relies on arbitrary delineations, and is largely corporate fiction. They went on to become accountants, and while their critical accounting theory (CAT) background gave them a sophisticated understanding of the assumptions underlying accounting, they still disagree with many CAT arguments, and practice accounting in a conventional, "orthodox" way. Critical studies are meant to provide "food for thought" and make us beetter people, but all my critical theory teachers kept reminding us that their field wasn't the end-all-be-all.

For those whose curiosity I piqued, there's a really good book illustrating the sometimes dead-end nature of critical theory arguments, whose name I forgot; I'll try to find it. DFlhb (talk) 20:30, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

All I will say at present is that I dispute that feminist critical discourse analysis is fringe within academia, and point out that critical discourse analysts are far from being the only critics of coverage of trans issues by The Times, The Telegraph and The Economist. Newimpartial (talk) 20:36, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

@

source bias, that is nowhere near the same thing as saying that the news organization is not reliable for the facts that it reports. Are you saying that the news organization actually makes factually incorrect reports here more frequently than we expect of a typical NEWSORG, or does it simply not incorporate transgender voices in its reporting as much as the author of the Feminist Media Studies piece would like? — Red-tailed hawk _(nest)

20:42, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Please see my reply here; I don't have time to provide additional sourcing today. Newimpartial (talk) 20:52, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

To add to the concern about using that journal, even if we take the journal itself at its word, we should be including the Guardian among the sources of concern since they are stated to be heavily pro-trans-rights in contrast to the Telegraph or Times. Which would not be reasonable. I think editors should be aware there are biases here, but by no means these should move these papers out of being reliable sources. Masem (t) 20:57, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

That isn't what the article says about The Guardian, Masem. Newimpartial (talk) 21:14, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 2 per Newimpartial. Andre🚐 19:34, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
  • Comment: Unlike the Times of London and the Economist which might have a little bit of a lean or a POV but are reliable, there is copious criticism of the Daily Telgraph that it is owned/influenced by political parties and advertisers to the extent that I feel option 2 is merited. It has promulgated Covid misinformation.[10] Andre🚐 23:57, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 3 per Newimpartial, since we're talking about their transgender coverage specifically, and their transgender coverage is where we have evidence of dubiousness. Option 2 for the Telegraph taken as a whole, with the additional consideration being that they are unreliable on trans issues. Loki (talk) 21:06, 11 November 2022 (UTC) See amended vote below. Loki (talk) 18:31, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

  A few sources I have found on the general issue with transphobia in the British press (not necessarily the Telegraph specifically):

  • CNN: Anti-trans rhetoric is rife in the British media. Little is being done to extinguish the flames
  • Paul Baker, a professor of linguistics: Representing trans people in the UK press – a follow-up study (NB: I'd like to find a peer reviewed version of either this or the original study but for now this is what I could find)
  • Xtra: British media is increasingly transphobic. Here’s why
  • Them: Meet the Trans Storytellers Fighting British Transphobia (subtitle calls Britain's press "virulently transphobic")
  • PinkNews: Journalist Juliet Jacques on how UK media is trying to ‘crush’ trans people: ‘We’re not in control’
  • Gay Times: Meet the journalist navigating Britain’s anti-trans press
  • USAToday: The Roots of Anti-Trans Feminism in the U.K.
  • Vice: The UK Is So Transphobic That Some Trans People Are Leaving
  • Insider: The BBC and The Times are accused of stoking a 'moral panic' against the trans community

  Loki (talk) 21:42, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  I checked 1, 2, 3, 4 are general critiques that doesn't mention The Telegraph, could you elaborate? General critiques of the media doesn't seem to be evidence in downgrading The Telegraph specifically. Moreover, Insider is a marginally reliable source. VickKiang (talk) 21:46, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  The Telegraph is definitely part of the UK mainstream press which all these articles criticize. Also, picking out one of a list of nine sources as marginally reliable I don't think is a reasonable tactic. Loki (talk) 23:40, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  The Telegraph is definitely part of the UK mainstream press which all these articles criticize. That you are inferring and drawing a conclusion not directly implied by the sources seem inaccurate to me. And by the way Vice is also marginally reliable. VickKiang (talk) 23:43, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  Additionally, this is a community piece, not a piece published by the staff or editorial members. Worth pointing it out IMO. VickKiang (talk) 23:45, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 1 - I see nothing wrong with the Telegraph's coverage of transgender issues. Have they made any factual errors? I haven't seen any. Korny O'Near (talk) 21:36, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 2 The Telegraph is occasionally factually incorrect about transgender issues, and always has a transphobic bias even in otherwise correct reporting.

From news sources

They made false claims that Mermaids was under investigation by the charity commision.(1)

Their coverage of transgender people is overwhelmingly negative (2, 3, 4, 5)

They have used the slur "tranny" in a headline (6) (Removed because it is from Sydney not UK telegraph)

Their headlines are often discriminatory transphobic clickbait (7, 8)

They frequently phrase things in terms of the "transgender debate" (see also, the

negro question, etc, when a demographic is a "debate" or a "question" things aren't going well) (9

)

Their reporting on the NHS and trans rights was described by IPSO, their regulator, as innacurate and they were reprimanded for it. (10)

From scholarly sources

Montiel McCann 2022: Applying a feminist critical discourse approach (Michelle M. Lazar 2005), I expose how hegemonic femininity is reproduced by broadsheets with an allegiance to the right-wing British Conservative (Tory) government—The Times and The Telegraph—to “other” trans identities and, therefore, justify discourses of anti-trans discrimination. (Thanks to Newimpartial for bringing it up)

Fae 2022: Second up? This would be the story that the Cass Review – an inquiry into trans healthcare – has re-issued and doubled down on a recommendation it made a few months back, that the NHS wind up the Tavistock Clinic, at present the only facility in the UK providing support and healthcare for trans youth. Awful news for the trans community, you’d think, and the usual suspects were there to gloat. The Daily Telegraph unleashed at least four articles on the topic in two days. The Times went sensational, with a piece headlined “Tavistock gender clinic forced to shut over safety fears”. The all too predictable narrative: treatment of trans kids is speculative and wrong. And it is now being closed down for good. The problem is that this narrative was almost entirely false... The closure was broadly welcomed in the trans community, not least because the youth service is to continue, in the form of de-centralised local services. The exact solution that trans folk have been asking for since pretty much forever. About the only news outlet to report the story accurately was Pink News, under the heading “NHS Tavistock youth gender clinic to be replaced under sweeping trans healthcare reforms”. ...Bailey herself tweeted, saying: “I have lost my case against Stonewall.” Much rejoicing in the trans community. Which is why the mainstream media reported it as, er, a defeat for Stonewall! No, honestly. Fringe commentator Unherd reported “How Allison Bailey crushed Stonewall”. An interesting verdict, given that Stonewall was so comprehensively exonerated. The Telegraph went with “Barrister wins discrimination case against Stonewall”. Well, that was their first attempt, though after the inevitable complaints, they amended it to “Allison Bailey was unlawfully victimised for opposing Stonewall’s ‘trans extremism’, tribunal rules”, although the URL for the piece still reflects the initial headline.

Pearce, Erikainen, & Vincent 2020: In the UK, ‘gender critical’ opinion pieces are regularly published in both left- and right-leaning outlets including The Observer, The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and The Mail on Sunday. A Google search for articles on ‘transgender’ published in The Times in 2018 alone yields approximately 230 results, with headlines such as ‘Girl Guide leaders expelled for questioning trans policy’ and ‘Picking and choosing gender is demonic, writes churchman’. Multiple ‘gender critical’ events have also taken place in the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, hosted variously by Conservative, Labour and Scottish National Party politicians.

Pearce 2020: During my first month of fieldwork, a public debate took place across numerous media platforms over the value and limits of free speech with respect to commentary on trans issues. A particularly inflammatory column by journalist Julie Burchill was published in the Observer, entitled ‘Transsexuals should cut it out’. The Observer’s editor rapidly pulled the piece and issued an apology following a wave of complaints from readers; the article was subsequently re-published in the Telegraph. I wrote: I find it utterly impossible to maintain any kind of objective distance from all this. The Telegraph’s actions genuinely hurt at a gut level. Part of this came from anger at the idea that they consider it so important to ensure that Burchill’s diatribe retains a high-profile media platform, but part of it also came from fear upon seeing the Telegraph’s reader comments. [. . .] The comments were full of such powerful hatred. They would deny us our civil rights, our dignity, our access to medical care. (Fieldwork diary, 15 January 2013) (Auto-ethnographical perspective from a trans researcher)

talk

) 22:11, 11 November 2022 (UTC)TheTranarchist

Some of your evidence are solid, others less so. it's worth noting that per

WP:RS. VickKiang (talk)

22:17, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

When I checked the Reliable Sources Archives I couldn't find any discussions surrounding Leftvoice and whether they're reliable or not. I was unsure if it was considered acceptable or not but opted with innocent until proven guilty. However, I don't see how a revolutionary socialist news site and magazine dedicated to fostering a sustained and strategic struggle against every form of capitalist exploitation and oppression directly implies it's unreliable.

WP:BIASED

also covers that. If anything, revolutionary news sites have more of an incentive to accurately cover things than media controlled by the rich and powerful. Trotskyism aside, I've seen a lot of good factual reporting from them.

In terms of

WP:HEADLINES

, the articles I cited also touch on how they use transphobic language throughout the article rather than just the headline, which I should have made more clear. Also, while headlines are generally unreliable, the fact that they use transphobic clickbait titles specifically points to an underlying issue of bias in the source in the topic area.

For the source describing them as "right-leaning", the article discusses gender-critical bias in the media in depth and the bias and unreliablility of those positions, noting the telegraph as an example of a news publication that platforms them.

Overall, I find the telegraph incredibly biased but not overtly wrong most of time. However, when it comes to transgender topics, we should note they have a history of transphobic bias and occasional inaccurate reporting on transgender topics.

talk

) 23:13, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

When I checked the Reliable Sources Archives I couldn't find any discussions surrounding Leftvoice and whether they're reliable or not. I was unsure if it was considered acceptable or not but opted with innocent until proven guilty. There is no guideline whatsoever stating that undiscussed sources should be assumed to reliable. If so, should we assume an undiscussed blog to be innocent? Trotskyism aside, I've seen a lot of good factual reporting from them- I don't think your personal liking of that source would result it to be reliable. Either show a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy through editorial policies, or alternatively that the authors are subject-matter-experts,

WP:USEBYOTHERS could be fine. Moreover, For the source describing them as "right-leaning", the article discusses gender-critical bias in the media in depth and the bias and unreliablility of those positions, noting the telegraph as an example of a news publication that platforms them- this source you linked discusses ‘Gender critical’ accounts but I don't think generalising criticism on other areas to support this reference's occasional accuracy is the most convicing. VickKiang (talk)

23:17, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

They made false claims that Mermaids was under investigation by the charity commision. Just happened to see the Guardian reporting this story this week: "Regulator escalates investigation into trans charity Mermaids". I think if The Telegraph and The Guardian agree on something, it is likely to be factual. Andreas JN466 11:20, 4 December 2022 (UTC)

@

TheTranarchist: As a note, this RfC is about the U.K. broadsheet, not the Australian tabloid. The coverage about the slur in the headline is very clearly about the Australian tabloid. Please strike that line from your comment. — Red-tailed hawk _(nest)

22:31, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

@Red-tailed hawk: A good catch. That refers to The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), a low-quality tabloid. IMO the headline examples and the examples about the tabloid are irrelevant. Thanks. VickKiang (talk) 22:33, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

I'll break down every news and scholarly source you give, and address the claims of factual unreliability:

• IntoMore

• Telegraph's claim that Mermaids was being investigated: that's not false. The headline calls it an "investigation", while the body of the article makes it clear that it's a "regulatory compliance case". PinkNews disputes that it's "a formal investigation". That's not a debunking, it's a semantic argument. The Telegraph's reporting was factual here.
• The Telegraph's other claims (lack of parental consent, a Mermaids trustee speaking to a pedophile support group and then resigning) aren't disputed, and seem accurate.

• LeftVoice

• This talks about "transphobic editorials" at the Telegraph. Nothing to do with their news reporting's factual accuracy.

• HuffPo

• This talks about "transphobic dog whistles" used by the Telegraph, and links to an opinion piece. Again, nothing whatsoever to do with factual reporting.

• PinkNews 1

• This piece condemns The Telegraph for op-eds, and for reporting on a politician's anti-trans comment. I'm unimpressed.

• PinkNews 2 and PinkNews 3

• Criticism of the headline isn't relevant, per
  WP:HEADLINE
  . This RFC is solely focused on the factual reliability of article contents.

• GayTimes

• GayTimes criticizes one Telegraph op-ed; and one news article. The news article covers research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, commissioned to London's City University. The Telegraph attributes "fears" over "freedom of expression" to a few academics who describe being harassed; they don't make claims in their own voice, and I find no factual inaccuracies in the Telegraph piece.
• Re: "the transgender debate" being equivalent to "the Jewish question": that's a highly offensive comparison. The Jewish question refers to Jews' right to exist. "Trans debate" was only used by Telegraph in the headline, so is irrelevant for our purposes. I'll note that "trans debate" usually refers to: 'what society should do when it comes to trans issues'. Calling it a debate is factual, and many people (including trans people & academics) disagree on how society should best accomodate trans people. That's not to say there aren't bigots, but to imply it's a genocidal dog whistle on par with 'the Jewish question' is utter bunk and worthy of condemnation.

• The IPSO report:

• Now, we get to the meat of the matter. The Telegraph issued two news stories in print, which were combined into one article online. They were reported to the media watchdog by a trans advocacy group, for a factual inaccuracy about a legal matter (which was incidental to the story). They issued a correction.
• IPSO found that the correction was made "promptly and with due prominence", and were satisfied by the Telegraph's response. Though IPSO sided with the advocacy group on one inaccuracy, they disputed the group's numerous other claims of inaccuracy in the article.

Now to the research:

• Montiel McCann 2022: I've already responded to Newimpartial above; I'll also note that as Red hawk says, it doesn't allege factual inaccuracies, just a "lack of trans voices" in media.
• Fae 2022: though it was published in a journal, that's an opinion piece, not a study.
• Pearce, Erikainen, & Vincent 2020: that criticizes opinion pieces in a single passing comment; not pertinent
• Pearce 2020: that's again about an opinion article.

So, while I'm grateful you provide many links, "there's no there there". DFlhb (talk) 23:14, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

The "transgender debate" is absolutely a dog whistle and it's an apt comparison. Quoting from the article on the jewish question: The Jewish question, also referred to as the Jewish problem, was a wide-ranging debate in 19th- and 20th-century European society that pertained to the appropriate status and treatment of Jews. The debate, which was similar to other "national questions", dealt with the civil, legal, national, and political status of Jews as a minority within society, particularly in Europe during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. In regards to calling it a debate is factual, that doesn't mean the fact there's a "debate" isn't an issue.

In regards to I'll note that "trans debate" usually refers to: 'what society should do when it comes to trans issues'., one could say the "jewish question" usually refers to: 'what society should do when it comes to jewish issues'. The key issues in the "trans debate" are usually things like: should the government legally recognize the existence of transgender people, enforce non-discrimination protections (especially in public spaces), or let them live in society with the full rights of other citizens.

The use of "jewish question" in historical sources does not imply a source is calling for outright extermination any more than the "transgender debate" does. The issue is the larger cultural framing where the existence and rights of a demographic are posed as a debate or question that needs to be discussed.

Sidenote, I have friends who are trans and jewish who have brought up the connection between the framings. Also seen trans and jewish accounts I follow make the comparison. Or is it still utter bunk and worthy of condemnation when they say it?

talk

) 00:04, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

I have friends who are trans and jewish I am both, and yes, it's condemnable. I'll stay high-level because this has nothing to do with the RFC, but: debates on the legal status of Jews, or trans people, involve discrimination. You said The Telegraph frequently phrase[s] things in terms of the "transgender debate", and claim that's equivalent to the "Jewish question" (i.e. right to exist). The Telegraph was using "debate" (only in its headline, not in the article) to refer to the entire nationwide conversation between TERFS, trans people, and everyone in between; not to refer to a debate about trans people's legal status or right to exist, and not to refer specifically to TERFS. You were putting one of the UK's two newspaper of record on the same level as stuff like Der Stürmer. I realize hyperbole is hugely present online, and that many of your friends may think like this, but I humbly suggest you take a step back from it and see if you really find it rational. DFlhb (talk) 00:37, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

I've had this discussion in the past w.r.t. other articles. People who use the term

final solution to the Jewish question and do it as a dogwhistle such as by saying "JQ".[11] [12]

You can't really make that comparison to the term "transgender debate" because as far as I'm aware, no world leader created & enacted a plan called the "final answer to the transgender debate" in which all transgender people within a geographic area would be murdered. The claim that some of your friends are Jewish and so you can make this comparison here is a logical fallacy. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 05:26, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

@Chess:, @DFlhb:

1) The "jewish question" and it's framing of the right to exist does not shed the full light on the situation. The "jewish question" was not just "should we genocide the jews", it was "should we give them rights, if so, which and which not". The "final solution" was only the Nazi's answer to the question, as the "jewish question" as a linguistic cultural framing existed before the Nazis. To help illustrate this divide between the "jewish question" as a debate which existed, a modern dogwhistle, and the "final solution", the article for it states According to Otto Dov Kulka of Hebrew University, the term became widespread in the 19th century when it was used in discussions about Jewish emancipation in Germany (Judenfrage). In the 19th century hundreds of tractates, pamphlets, newspaper articles and books were written on the subject, with many offering such solutions as resettlement, deportation, or assimilation of the Jewish population. Similarly, hundreds of works were written opposing these solutions and offering instead solutions such as re-integration and education.. In short, the "jewish question" was the "debate" playing out in media over whether jews should have rights, not a reference to a particular answer, though the existence of a debate necessarily implies those for and against.

2) The Gay City News Article referenced discuss LGBT reactions to posing rights as a "debate", which the vast majority of survey respondents found harmful. The link between the "jewish question" and "trans debate" is the fact that the media has framed the rights of a minority as a debate to be had and settled. Key to a debate, their are two sides, namely should people have rights, or not.

3) The telegraph article itself that used the term "trans debate" (one of many, I should add), states The equalities watchdog has launched a study into the sex versus gender row amid fears that the abuse of feminist academics by trans activists is harming freedom of expression and a vicious debate between those who believe biological sex cannot be changed, known as "gender-critical" views, and trans activists who argue that men who identify as women should be legally recognised as female. and Baroness Falkner of Margravine, the EHRC chairman, has recognised there is "genuine public concern" that women's and transgender rights can be in conflict. In all of these, the debate is framed as between feminists (who support women's rights by opposing trans rights) and the trans activists who speak up against them (who just want rights and to be left alone but are framed in a negative light and their arguments strawmanned), saying transgender rights are dangerous for other people, and the article overwhelmingly takes the side of the gender-critical camp. A quick search on google finds 129 articles by the telegraph referencing the "trans debate" or "transgender debate".

4) I have only heard the "transgender debate" used in real life by those staunchly opposed to transgender rights. In the media, a source saying "the transgender debate" almost always betrays a position opposed to transgender rights. The entire nationwide conversation between TERFS, trans people, and everyone in between is in fact a debate about trans people's legal status or right to exist

5) In terms of the "final solution", which I re-iterate is not 1-1 with the "jewish question", at the moment there is no equivalent (for a start, genocide against ethnic vs gender minorities takes different forms, since eradicating an ethnic community is a different issue than eradicating trans communities because transgender people can continue to be born by those who aren't). But two things play into that. 1) The Nazis also sent transgender and LGBT people to the concentration camps, but did not debate or make a big deal of them in the media beforehand. The existence of the "X debate" is not a 1-1 connection with genocide. 2) People referencing the "transgender debate" have formed answers like, off the top of my head: forcibly detransition all transgender youth, make it more difficult for transgender people to change their name and gender and thus participate civically as cisgender people can, make it a crime to discuss transgender issues or support in higher education, make it a crime for transgender people to use public facilities because cis people might feel threatened, decry transgender people as an infectious ideology that needs to be stopped, and take transgender youth away from supportive parents to place them with unsupportive ones. (See Marjorie Taylor Greene's federal bill and the situation in Texas). In short, transgender people's rights to exist in the public sphere, have their existence recognized, and define their own community and continuity of knowledge. Has the answer been "kill them all" yet? Apart from the most unhinged far-right elements, no, and even then they'll usually just attack the "grooming" adults to "protect the children". Overall, the debate has been "should transgender people be allowed to exist here with the same rights as everyone else", with no as a frequent answer.

6)In short, the "transgender debate" and "jewish question" are both references to an existing media debate over what extent a minority should have the same rights as everyone else. The "jewish question", while inextricably linked with the "final solution", is not 1-1 with it, as there were those who called for reactionary but not outright genocidal answers to it. As in the modern situation. The existence of the "debate" is factual, but how it's framed and used often betrays the publication's biases. A sidenote, I am in fact writing a research paper on the rise and fall of transgender rights from Weimar Republic to Nazi rule, and in fascist states more broadly, and similarities and differences with the modern trans situation in the U.S. in terms of media/cultural framing, legal rights, and medical rights, so this is an area I have extensively studied. I do not feel my comparison is hyperbole or irrational, rather a critical analysis of common rhetorical tactics used to oppose people's rights, namely the persistent framing of attacks on people's rights as a "debate" and widespread media discussions which use this framing. I am not comparing "Der Stürmer" to "The Telegraph", as neither was the only voice speaking of the "X question", merely speaking to the existence and implications of widespread media coverage from all ranges of the political spectrum posing minority rights as a debate/question. There's other work I plan to do on Wikipedia today but I hope this clarifies my argument and positions.

talk

) 18:37, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

I'm a bit in the weeds here, but I think the "X Question" issue is a red herring. Basically every national movement of the 19th-20th century was framed in terms of "X Question": see German question, Polish question, Irish question, Romanian Question Austrian question, Italian question, English question, Czech question, Russian question, Spanish question,Turkish question, Finnish question. It's archaic terminology, but not inherently offensive, although I'd readily concede that the misconception that asking national questions leads to final solutions is widespread. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 00:06, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 1 and a trout to the person who started this nonsense.47.160.161.90 (talk) 22:17, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1. I agree with the comment above. No evidence has been given to substantiate these RfCs. Gitz (talk) (contribs) 23:08, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1, per my extensive (and time-consuming) analysis of the arguments provided for unreliability, which people can see above by searching my name. I do think
  WP:SNOWBALL applies here. DFlhb (talk
  ) 23:16, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

  How can SNOWBALL apply when the !votes are divided? Asking for a friend. :) Newimpartial (talk) 00:22, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

• Guess you're right :) DFlhb (talk) 01:22, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

@

WP:SNOW probably won't apply at those RfCs, even though the result currently leans towards Option 1. VickKiang (talk)

01:35, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

• Comment: Separate to the question of reliability is the question of bias, which some assert, and some dismiss as constrained to op-eds. But I think option 1 supporters should more clarify whether they consider the factual reporting biased or unbiased. I also invite option 2/3 supporters to provide evidence of bias in specifically the news coverage, by linking us to specific articles they feel are biased, rather than by using academic sources that are commenting on the op-eds. I've yet to see arguments of ideological or opinionated bias in the news coverage, and would like to see individual examples. DFlhb (talk) 01:22, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1 as I explained in the previous comments here.
  WP:MEDRS claims, and Colin as well as Andrevan raises good comments on its bias, IMO The Telegraph is slightly more conservative compared to The Economist or The Times. However, I currently see insufficient evidence of repeated inaccuracies and misleading statements in news sections that would push this towards marginally reliable or generally unreliable, though if more references demonstrating that are found do ping me. VickKiang (talk)
  01:35, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1 It seems some don't like how they cover the topic but that doesn't mean the coverage isn't reliable. Of course the reliability of any specific article can be questioned even if the source is considered generally reliable on the topic. IE, treat it as we treat any other generally reliable source. Springee (talk) 04:59, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1 As with the Times discussion, no real attempt has been made to prove factual unreliability, which is what we need to see. We don't state sources are unreliable because of their biases, the articles linked above show convincingly that the Telegraph opposes the expansion of trans-rights, and that trans-advocates consider its editorial line to be transphobic. But they do not show a higher level of factual inaccuracy on this topic than is displayed in the paper's general output. Ergo, it can not be considered unreliable on this topic. Boynamedsue (talk) 08:19, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1 A standard quality
  WP:POINT of going after right-leaning sources again (But I AGF and assume it is not). The C of E God Save the King! (talk
  ) 08:36, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

  @

  WP:POINTy but in the opposite direction you think.) Loki (talk

  ) 18:26, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 3 In case it isn't clear from my comments. The Telegraph reports on trans issues in much the same way as we see Covid cranks, HIV-deniers, MMR-autism promoters, where the mainstream is considered extreme and where fringe voices are the only one's heard and where interviewing actual doctors or actual trans people is a weird idea, when one could instead interview and give platform to some random person who started a pressure group. Using The Telegraph, on trans issues, is a textbook example of
  WP:VNOT. -- Colin°^Talk
  11:35, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Judging non-wikipedia sources by wikipedia policies is not helpful. The Telegraph is not a collaborative encyclopaedia and so our rules on tendencious editing are completely irrelevant. We could equally apply

Pink News coverage of Trans issues, and we would be equally wrong to do so. The difference between the Telegraph's standpoint and the conspiracy theories that you name is that they are arguing about the social desirability of certain activities and legal situations relating to trans-issues, rather than arguing against the existence scientific facts. That doesn't mean there is no case that their positions are bigoted, but it doesn't make the information they publish factually wrong. Boynamedsue (talk

) 12:09, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Boynamedsue, I realised I didn't word that sentence correctly. I missed of "Using" to the start of it and have now added that. You are right, I'm not judging the telegraph by our policies, I'm judging the editors. If the Telegraph was arguing about social or legal matters then that might be fair ground for them, but they are specifically discussing a medical professional organisation, medical consensus guidelines and in the case of the clinic in the photograph, an NHS medical facility that campaigners want closed down. None of those things are social or legal. They are medical. We have editors, in the linked case, arguing we must include viewpoints on medical guidelines coming from fringe lobby groups who have no medical training and are not representing any significant viewpoint in the medical profession. They are a political feminist organisation. This is like saying our Covid articles must include a statement that its viral cause is "controversial" because some people think it is caused by 5G. I do think the Telegraph is factually wrong on that. If they were being factually correct, they would acknowledge the mainstream aspect of the organisation, guidelines and clinic and make it clear that it is a minority and non-medical view that is being vocalised by For Woman Scotland. I think they are factually wrong in which group they label "extreme", and its factual incorrectness is demonstrated if you read reliable sources on the matter, or indeed, our own Wikipedia article. -- Colin°^Talk 13:42, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

I tend to disagree, this is querying medical practice as it exists in a particular place and time, rather than querying scientifically proven facts such as the existence of viral coronavirus and the effectiveness of a vaccine in creating antibodies. The transgender debate clearly has a social aspect around which debate is legitimate, the situation is more similar to that which occurred around the desirability and effectiveness of the various anti-covid measures. Boynamedsue (talk) 16:07, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 1. I waited until examples of claimed false reporting were presented. DFlhb's summary above matches what I found in reviewing them. The most serious – an IPSO ruling – concluded that "The published correction put the correct position on record and was offered and published promptly and with due prominence. No further action was required" (the other complaints were not upheld). This is in accordance with standard practice. Not liking what a source publishes is very different from demonstrating that a source is problematic. The latter hasn't been done for this source. EddieHugh (talk) 12:24, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option X: Scrap RfC. This seems to be a case of someone asking a question on which they favor the status quo, without presenting any of the arguments that have been given elsewhere against the status quo, to drum up easy !votes on their side. Any RfC on this question should contain, at a minimum, a summary of reasons people have objected to the use of The Telegraph on trans topics. -- Tamzin^{[cetacean needed]} (she|they|xe) 13:54, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
  • I don’t understand this objection… summaries and arguments for/against the use of a source are supposed to be placed in the discussion section of an RFC… and this discussion contains several of such summaries. Blueboar (talk) 15:17, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

    I think the point is it should begin with a clearly laid out set of reasons why their reliability in this domain is contested. This was always going to be an uphill battle given (a) the number of editors who want to use the Telegraph because it supports their POV on the matter and (b) the number of editors who have no idea that the Telegraph has completely lost the plot when it comes to trans issues. -- Colin°^Talk 19:05, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

There is no obligation to begin with a summary of the doubts around a source, I have even been told off for doing so in the past. Do you feel that the problems you perceive with this source are still not outlined here? --Boynamedsue (talk) 22:06, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Per the edit notice to this noticeboard titled Before posting, please be sure to include any of the following information that is available:, editors should include context on 2. Article. The Wikipedia article(s) in which it is being used. For example: [[Article name]]. and 3. Content. The exact statement(s) or other content in the article that the source is supporting. Please supply a

WP:DIFF or put the content inside block quotes. Many sources are reliable for statement "X" but unreliable for statement "Y". That information was available to gnu57 prior to posting this, as evidenced by the related discussion on LBC News. Sideswipe9th (talk

) 22:13, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

I would like to point out that numerous recent RfCs, including the Fox News RfC this year at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 385, ANNA News at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 371, had this structure with no context. In contrast, others, e.g., Insider at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 381 and Jacobin at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 351, had some context, and I think both are reasonable. VickKiang (talk) 22:31, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

The Fox News RfC included in its filing the context on the past discussions involving that source, and an evidence base in support of its unreliability. You are correct though that the ANNA News RfC lacked context, though some was added twenty minutes after filing by the OP. However while there are undoubtedly examples of previous discussions being filed without context, it does not prevent it from being a valid criticism of how this set of discussions were opened.

In this particular filing, context is incredibly important. As can be demonstrated by the very swift replies of "reliable, it's a newspaper of record", there are as Colin has pointed out a great number of editors who have no idea just how unreliable The Telegraph has become with regards to reporting on transgender issues in the last 5/10 years. Both the Telegraph and Times are currently publishing at least one anti-trans article, per day, and have been doing so since at least 2019/20. Filtering through that rather large pile of articles, cross-referencing that against reporting from other sources, and checking archival versions for articles that have been subtly or not so subtly altered post-publication takes time. It also takes time to find, access, read, and assess what other reliable sources (both media and academic) have been saying about these publications so that their findings can also be presented.

While there are several editors here who have been preparing for a discussion on the Times and Telegraph, including myself, none of us were prepared for it to be sprung without notice, and without the context necessary for those uninvolved in this content area to understand the nature and scope of the problem. As such we have all been put on the back foot by this, and now face a much harder challenge of informing and convincing other editors as to the problem when it comes to these sources. Tamzin's interpretation of this as a case of someone asking a question on which they favor the status quo, without presenting any of the arguments that have been given elsewhere against the status quo, to drum up easy !votes on their side is a charitable one, as there are far more cynical alternatives both within and without the realm of

WP:AGF. Sideswipe9th (talk

) 23:22, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

In fact in this very noticeboard previously I've already addressed some editors' concerns with the CNN ref at here. It would really be beneficial in providing new references rather than repeating the same point over again. Thanks. VickKiang (talk) 23:28, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

I've cited the CNN source to verify a statement by Shon Faye, a subject-matter expert, who has said of the Times and Sunday Times over 300 articles, almost one a day, and they were all negative. Sideswipe9th (talk) 00:00, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

P.S. I am frankly unconvinced by that Filtering through that rather large pile of articles, cross-referencing that against reporting from other sources, and checking archival versions for articles that have been subtly or not so subtly altered post-publication takes time. It also takes time to find, access, read, and assess what other reliable sources (both media and academic) have been saying about these publications so that their findings can also be presented. Concerns on a

WP:SNOW close have been refuted, I disagree with that and multiple later Option 1 voters does not agree with that close. If that is the case, this RfC will be open for a month. I'm certain that those Option 2/3/X voters would find sufficient time to provide at least some evidence instead of repeating the same references over and over again. However, if you do manage to assemble a list that would be significantly more convincing than the weak ones at the relevant talk pages and Newimpartial's talk page, I'd be then content to amend my vote. Until then I will respectfully disagree. VickKiang (talk)

23:31, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

I'm not addressing the SNOW close calls, so please do not straw-man that as my argument.

When I said filtering through the articles takes time, I meant on the order of several months. My current plan was to make two RfCs on the reliability of the Times and Telegraph sometime in January/February 2023. When looking at a 5 year period, there are thousands of anti-trans articles published between these two papers that need to be sorted, and the most egregious cases of misinformation identified. I don't know of Newimpartial's or TheTranarchist's timescales, but I suspect given comments elsewhere they were also looking at this discussion taking place some time early next year. Sideswipe9th (talk) 23:42, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

When looking at a 5 year period, there are thousands of anti-trans articles published between these two papers that need to be sorted, and the most egregious cases of misinformation identified. Again, I find it quite unconvincing that, on one hand you state that you all who vote Option 2/3/X require more time, in contrast, on the other hand you continue to make these sweeping claims of thousands of anti-trans articles... while refusing to provide any evidence that supports this. VickKiang (talk) 00:09, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

So, for context, here's just articles that have been published in the past week: [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]. (And out of these, there's only one of them that's unambiguously pro-trans, and several that are unambiguously anti-trans.) As they've been doing this for several years now, it'd be very surprising to me if there weren't over a thousand articles like this. Loki (talk) 00:31, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

To add to Loki's list of 9 articles published by The Telegraph in the last week, The Times have published 19 articles that contain the word "transgender" in that same time period. According to the same search page, they have published 795 articles in the last twelve months. Sideswipe9th (talk) 00:39, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

there's only one of them that's unambiguously pro-trans, and several that are unambiguously anti-trans- Of course, I fully acknowledge that this is not your intent when you wrote the message, so I'm not

WP:BIASED but unreliability in the topic from my view. Of course, I'm not saying that you are suggesting this, it's just my observation. VickKiang (talk)

01:13, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

The point that Loki and I have made here is one of scale. Ask yourself, how long would it take you to just read all 795 of those articles The Times have published in the last twelve months. Not even to eliminate those that just contain the word "transgender" and are otherwise unrelated, or remove those which are covered under RSOPINION. How long to just read them? Now imagine you're having to do this for two papers, and at least five years worth of such articles. Even if you're doing nothing else, this is months of work just to read those articles. Sideswipe9th (talk) 01:25, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

If it is indeed marginally reliable on

WP:QS like, the latter being have a poor reputation for checking the facts, lack meaningful editorial oversight, or have an apparent conflict of interest on the topic, I'd imagine that even going through the first 100 articles you'd be able to find articles that demonstrate this is unreliable or misleading. Going through 795 articles and finding a couple that might be obviously misleading doesn't seem to indicate that a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy in this topic would be violated. And additionally, I already said that Of course, I fully acknowledge that this is not your intent when you wrote the message, I'm not attempting to contradict Loki's statement. VickKiang (talk)

01:29, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

I'd imagine that even going through the first 100 articles you'd be able to find articles that demonstrate this is unreliable or misleading. It's not that easy. Remember that my goal is to convince other uninvolved editors that this source is unreliable. I can't just pick from the 100 most recent articles, because that would at best cover a short time period (2 or 3 months), and some of the best and most convincing examples may have been published 6, 12, or 18 months ago.

From the work I've already done, some of my stronger examples are from 2020 and 2021, in no small part because I've yet to read all of this year's content. But I also know from some of the past discussions on this noticeboard that these examples, on their own, are not enough to convince otherwise uninvolved editors of the problem. Like you've already illuded to, picking a handful of obviously misleading articles does not indicated that a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy is absent. I and the other editors need to present a breadth of articles, that demonstrate the scale of this problem. That takes time. Time we sadly seem to no longer have. Sideswipe9th (talk) 01:43, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

That's a solid point, I stand by my vote but might change mind if solid evidence are provided, preferably even stronger than those generally well-done, numerous examples in the Fox News RfC, many thanks for your comments! VickKiang (talk) 02:00, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

I'd recommend against going for breadth; in my experience from past discussions (not on trans topics), that's usually used to hide deficiencies in arguments, and turns an ironclad case into more of a gishgallop. I'd pick the 5 strongest, best examples you have, to avoid people finding that one article isn't as biased as claimed, and dismissing the others. DFlhb (talk) 04:17, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Ask yourself, how long would it take you to just read all 795 of those articles The Times have published in the last twelve months

Nobody's asking for you to spend a week reviewing proving that 795 articles are flawed. Usually for RSN RFCs, editors can easily point to a piece or two that contain factual inaccuracies. Five pieces and the RFC has a change of succeeding. Apparently this debate came from a prior discussion on a talk page, where the sources were claimed to be biased. Well, why not post them here? DFlhb (talk) 04:13, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

In this particular filing, context is incredibly important. As can be demonstrated by the very swift replies of "reliable, it's a newspaper of record", there are as Colin has pointed out a great number of editors who have no idea just how unreliable The Telegraph has become with regards to reporting on transgender issues in the last 5/10 years. I should note in these discussions numerous Option 1 voters have refuted sources provided, e.g.,

WP:FORUMSHOP. Therefore, I object to a statement that most of the Option 1 editors lack sufficient competence, familiarity, and knowledge to be participating on this topic. Many thanks. VickKiang (talk)

23:41, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Please strike lack sufficient competence, familiarity, and knowledge to be participating on this topic as I have not said that. What I have said is that many editors are unfamiliar with how unreliable the Telegraph and Times have become when reporting on trans issues, in relation to their editorial bias. That is not a controversial statement, and it is a self-evident one. Both papers are putting out at least one anti-trans article every day, sometimes several, resulting in hundreds every year. Unless you are reading all of them, you are likely not going to be familiar with the scale of the problem. And unless you're reading all of them, and cross-referencing against other reporting, you're likely not going to be familiar with the nature of the problem. Please stop constructing straw-men about things I am not saying. Sideswipe9th (talk) 23:57, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Unless you are reading all of them, you are likely not going to be familiar with the scale of the problem. And unless you're reading all of them, and cross-referencing against other reporting, you're likely not going to be familiar with the nature of the problem- why would persistent

WP:BIAS be automatically indicative of unreliability is my question, which is not claimed by the CNN piece? VickKiang (talk)

23:59, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Because the editorial bias of these two publications is resulting in them publishing misleading and verifiably false information at scale. I have some examples of this, however it is not yet in a form I can present to this noticeboard. The reason why I've !voted for option X is because this RfC is too early.

I do not know why you're so stuck on the CNN piece, I have only used it to verify a single statement by a subject-matter expert, as to how many articles were published by The Times in 2019/20. Sideswipe9th (talk) 00:07, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Like I said below, the CNN source fails to clarify at all whether the so-called 300+ articles are news, opinion. analysis, or commentary. I believe this RfC is treating news articles per the prompt, not opinion ones, which would fall under

WP:RSOPINION. VickKiang (talk)

00:11, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Sure, and if my entire argument was predicated on this, you would have a point. However I am using this statement by Faye to illustrate the sheer scale of the task that is involved here. You said If that is the case, this RfC will be open for a month. however I am telling you that because of the sheer scale, that is not enough time for those of us who were mid-preparation for this RfC to finish our preparations. Simply identifying and reading all of the trans related articles published, by just one of those publications, in a single year, takes weeks. Cross-referencing that against other sources adds complexity. And there being two sources, both with the same anti-trans bias affecting their reliability, doubles all time estimates.

Even if I was commissioned to undertake this as a research paper as a full-time job, it would take months just to do the initial corpus search and cross-referencing. And that's before you add on even more time for searching for what other reliable sources (academic or media) have said, and searching for any reports issued by government select committies, IPSO, and similar NGOs Sideswipe9th (talk) 00:29, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

What I have said is that many editors are unfamiliar with how unreliable the Telegraph and Times have become when reporting on trans issues, in relation to their editorial bias. That is not a controversial statement, and it is a self-evident one.- frankly I don't think given the current consensus here that with how unreliable the Telegraph and Times have become when reporting on trans issues is as so-called "uncontroversial" as you state, and it is unreasonable to presume that all of these RfC participants are unfamiliar with these vague examples. It might be uncontroversial to you but not from my POV. VickKiang (talk) 00:01, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

I haven't seen any editor allege "at least one anti-trans article every day". They say British outlets can publish one to two hundred articles about trans issues a year; not "anti-trans", just "about trans issues". That's an enormous difference.

And I'd still like a link to even a single article you feel is either biased or factually inaccurate. I don't want to concede either point without evidence, and none so far has convinced me. DFlhb (talk) 00:02, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Per the CNN piece: Shon Faye, trans advocate and author of "The Transgender Issue," told CNN. According to her analysis, in 2020 the Times and the Sunday Times published "over 300 articles, almost one a day, and they were all negative." According to research commissioned by Mermaids conducted by Professor Paul Baker, Lancaster University and submitted to the House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee, in 2018/19 the Times published 1230 articles (a rate of 3.37 articles per day), and the Telegraph published 813 (a rate of 2.23 articles per day). There are, quite literally, thousands of articles to sort through. Sideswipe9th (talk) 00:22, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

I do empathize with the work that is; it seems we have thoroughness and conscientiousness in common. DFlhb (talk) 04:20, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

The general stance of opinion pieces is not relevant when assessing the reliability of news. 2A01:4B00:9D42:6E00:4CED:61B9:CCE0:425A (talk) 23:18, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

In instances where a publication declares its policy intentions in editorials, and then platforms the same viewpoint while ignoring or caricaturing other perspectives in its news coverage, its editorial stance just might be relevant, particularly when assessing

due inclusion of content in article space. Newimpartial (talk

) 23:23, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Unless you are reading all of them, you are likely not going to be familiar with the scale of the problem. And unless you're reading all of them, and cross-referencing against other reporting, you're likely not going to be familiar with the nature of the problem. By the way (just an observation, not saying you are suggesting this) I doubt that anyone here excepting you will be reading 795 articles, including Option 1/2/3/X voters, but it's good for you to be thorough in your analysis. VickKiang (talk) 07:42, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Please don't make the mistake of thinking that short replies lack thought, verbosity doesn't necessarily equal having put extra thought into something. Also swiftness of posting here gives no way of determining how much time went into that reply. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 00:02, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

ActivelyDisinterested Thank you for your note, apologies if my comment is inaccurate to you, I will strike it soon.

I should clarify that the CNN piece actually state When it comes to trans rights “polling shows that the public isn’t necessarily as hostile as the media, but the media [continues] to lead the conversation,” Shon Faye, trans advocate and author of “The Transgender Issue,” told CNN. According to her analysis, in 2020 the Times and the Sunday Times published “over 300 articles, almost one a day, and they were all negative.” CNN has reached out to both newspapers for comment. Note that: a) it expresses an interviewee's opinion, b) by over 300 articles it does not clarify whether it is a news piece, which is the area of debate set by this RfC, or opinion ones. Indeed, two paragraphs later CNN goes on to say In an essay for the Times decrying “wokeism” last November, Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips said: “The greatest tragedy in all of this is that the gurus of wokedom have persuaded thousands of idealistic young people who rightly want to change the world into supporting what is actually a deeply reactionary movement. The trans activists can only realize their aim of being able to enter spaces reserved for women by erasing the female sex.” But that is a commentary piece, not a news piece, therefore a sweeping statement on the over 300 articles is inaccurate. VickKiang (talk) 00:06, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

it should begin with a clearly laid out set of reasons why their reliability in this domain is contested

It

cannot. See the pre-RFC Daily Dot discussion, which laid out a list of reasons; and the Daily Dot RFC which had to have neutral wording. The shouldn't contain arguments for a certain option. DFlhb (talk

) 01:17, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

The question has to be neutral and brief. However the material in support of it provided by the filer does not. See the filing for the recent Fox News RfC. While the question was brief, it was accompanied by some 20kb of examples of that publication's bias and unreliability. Sideswipe9th (talk) 01:30, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

@

WP:RSP and past RFCs, not the prompt/OP section. VickKiang (talk)

01:33, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

That is what I said yes. The question was brief and neutral. And it had a supporting section documenting the context from past discussions, and examples of its bias and unreliability. Sideswipe9th (talk) 01:45, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Good point. Of course commenting problems in the survey/discussion section is perfectly fine, as long it's not in the original prompt. VickKiang (talk) 01:47, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Sure, I just want to avoid another situation like the Fox RFC that came right before. DFlhb (talk) 02:19, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Agree with this. VickKiang (talk) 02:27, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

@Tamzin: This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the RfC process and you may wish to read Wikipedia:Requests for comment#Statement should be neutral and brief. It is your job as someone replying to the RfC to give evidence supporting your position. It's not the job of anyone else, least of all the person creating the RfC. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 02:53, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option X per Tamzin et al. ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 14:02, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1 Bias is not a reliability issue. Adoring nanny (talk) 15:31, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option X per Tamzin: in retrospect there's no way this RFC could have been neutral. The person who nominated this wants it to be declared reliable. They are
  WP:RFCBEFORE and instead tried to circumvent the local consensus there by coming here. Loki (talk
  ) 18:31, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option X This is just an attempt to go over the head of an existing talk page discussion and doing so in a misleading way by not presenting the context of what was being disputed in the first place. This was never a question on general reliability of the newspaper in question, but the reliability (and due weight) of a specific article. Silverseren^C 19:35, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Based on the timestamps, context was included in the form of the "Context: The Telegraph" section less than 6 hours after the RfC was posted. If the question elsewhere is about the due weight (and I assume that you mean 'accuracy', not 'reliability') of one article, that shouldn't be affected by the discussion here. EddieHugh (talk) 21:21, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 1, no evidence of unreliability for facts has been presented. As for the claims that this RfC is forum shopping, many in these discussions have been arguing repeatedly, not just at the
  WP:RSP. They variously seem to expect us to take their word for it, or cite the same few op-eds and similar from 'progressive' American media complaining that British papers of record don't go all-in on their preferred policy of absolute gender self-identification. These complainants either need to stop making this disruptive argument or present a case to change the community's mind. After months they failed to do so, preferring to instead disregard RSP on individual talk pages, and so someone else started a discussion. They keep saying a discussion needs to happen, so let's have it. Crossroads ^-talk-
  21:20, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option X I agree with Tamzin that this RfC has not been presented in a way that encourages informed discussion. The context of the underlying discussions that lead to the snap creation of this RfC has been left out by the filer, which is interesting when you compare these three RfCs, with the related discussion on LBC News, also started by the filer. Uninvolved editors are being asked to ask blindly whether or not these sources are reliable in a specific context, without any information as to why they are being discussed as unreliable in that context. While I have been preparing for an eventual RfC on how the anti-trans bias of The Telegraph and The Times is impacting on their reliability in this context, and I've not been shy on stating that I'm preparing for such on relevant article talk pages, I am not yet ready to present this information in a clear and succinct manner that uninvolved editors will be able to follow, and will need time to formulate such a response. This is simply a premature filing of a discussion that requires a great deal more care than has been given× to it. Sideswipe9th (talk) 21:25, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

  You literally have a month to respond to this RfC. Asking for an RfC with more than a dozen people to be rescheduled to some indefinite time in the future because you don't feel like getting your !vote ready isn't a valid point. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 23:44, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 1/2 but I think it should not be logged at
  WP:RSP. Otherwise, we might be giving the impression that the source is particularly reliable about this topic, rather than just generally reliably genelist press. Which can also be summarized as Option X. MarioGom (talk
  ) 22:24, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1. The Telegraph isn't the paper it used to be , but is still reliable for reporting the facts. Opinion pieces, etc as per my comment for the Economist. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 23:00, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1. A top tier source, and the fact that we need to have this discussion demonstrates why the RSN process needs to be overhauled or abandoned.

I note that editors opening an RFC are forbidden from presenting an arguments for or against the status quo as part of doing so, per

WP:RFCNEUTRAL. BilledMammal (talk

) 04:06, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

That is not true. -- Colin°^Talk 09:47, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

I opened an RfC and was told that presenting a summary of the issue risked leading to a Bad RfC verdict, so I deleted. It is absolutely bonkers to claim something is procedurally wrong with the opening of these RfCs. Those who say that these sources are unreliable have had ample opportunity to present their arguments. Boynamedsue (talk) 10:45, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 1. No evidence has been provided of false reporting by this highly reputable source. 𝕱𝖎𝖈𝖆𝖎𝖆 (talk) 08:02, 13 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1. I am in agreement that no evidence has been provided to support the claim that The Telegraph is not a reputable source and that it lacks factual reporting. (What I'm getting from this RfC -- and The Economist RfC -- is an attempt to attack and censor newspapers and magazines that don't kowtow to special interest groups.) Pyxis Solitary (yak). L not Q. 12:19, 13 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option 1 Clearly a reliable source. The arguments presented above that it is not a reliable source on these topics are unpersuasive and misdirected, and the arguments that this RFC is procedurally improper are misconceived. This should be closed as
  Banks Irk (talk
  ) 19:04, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

  WP:SNOW clearly does not apply - please see my response to the equivalent vote concerning The Economist. Newimpartial (talk

  ) 23:31, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

• Option 2 At the very least, they're in the region where their reporting (editorial stance, selection of topics, choice of emphasis, etc.) should be considered biased.
  talk
  ) 23:03, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
• Option X This, along with the Economist and Times of London RFCs, is
  WP:FORUMSHOPPING. I will not dignify it with any response other than to close it. Bowler the Carmine | talk
  02:12, 15 November 2022 (UTC)