Talk:FOIA:Detention Practices Project

From dKosopedia

Using "FOIA" as a namespace prefix is a really bad idea. First of all there are many different FOIAs in different state jurisdictions as well as the US federal one. Second it's a means of retrieving information, not a source of information. Third the actual source of the information is the US federal government. If it's being doctored or faked, it's being doctored or faked by them, not by some abstract "FOIA" process that exists independent of them.

If there is any judgement involved in assessing credibility, it would be better to name the exact source of the information itself, e.g.:

US_DOD:partial list of Guantanamo Bay detainees for a list released by the DoD

ACLU:partial list of Guantanamo Bay detainees for a list released by the ACLU

US_GOV:partial list of Guantanamo Bay detainees for a list released by the US government as a single entity.

Yes, it's more complex, but it makes the POV of the source much more evident, and it does not mix up evidence coming from these sources, with the arguments about them. Which presumably is happening now with such pages as this one: FOIA:Detention Practices Project. If it were named more exactly DK:US Military Detention Practices and cited all the sources, that would make it much more obvious who was backing what statements.

Which is definitely important in a project like this.

Also the issue/position/argument structure helps keeps things like position:Bush failed on terrorism clear, and a separate space for contentions terms helps too: term:homicide bomber and term:illegal combatant help make clear that these are terms the US government made up, while term:fair and balanced, term:we report, you decide are made up by Fox News. The term:Islamofascism might also someday show up in some official correspondence.