Talk:Matt Bevin/Archives/2019/December

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Too long?

Does anybody else think this article is overly lengthy and overly detailed, or is it just me? SunCrow (talk) 17:54, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

SunCrow, what would you propose to trim? – Muboshgu (talk) 18:05, 14 December 2019 (UTC)
Muboshgu: My honest answer is that pretty much everything should be trimmed, especially the election sections. Perhaps some of that material could also be spun off into articles about the respective elections. FYI, here is how the size of this article stacks up against articles about some other equivalent political figures:
Bevin 152,906 kb
Bobby Jindal 137,209
Rick Scott 117,428
Steve Beshear 92,901
John Bel Edwards 38,581
Phil Bryant 21,478
SunCrow (talk) 22:10, 14 December 2019 (UTC)
Yes, the article is probably too long and detailed, and I say that as the person who wrote most of it. That's a function, imo, of two things. First, when writing a biography primarily from newspaper articles (i.e. without the benefit of some period of historical reflection and commentary), it can be tough to separate out the stuff of lasting historical impact from the stuff of daily newspaper filler. Second, as a person who isn't especially coy about my political leanings, I wanted to avoid any intimation by folks on the other side that I was trying to "whitewash" the article by passing over potentially controversial content. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. As you can see from the discussion below, Bevin is a very unpopular guy in a lot of circles, so there are a lot of subjects that potentially fall under this scenario. I'd be glad for someone to do some fat trimming on the article, but it would be nice if they would leave some discussion here regarding their reasoning for any major edits. For the reasons just stated, and because I'm a lot less active on Wikipedia than I used to be, I'm the wrong person to undertake that endeavor, but I would like to be able to keep tabs on what is going on with the article and offer what I'm sure will be the minority opinion on potentially contentious subjects. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 16:47, 16 December 2019 (UTC)
I would only support trimming the article to make it more concise without removing information. I think it's good that the article has as much information as it already does, and I think that in general, politician articles suffer much more from having too little detail than the other way around. --1990'sguy (talk) 16:22, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Need to add controversy section

This is relevant and needs to be added. MediaMM (talk) 17:56, 14 December 2019 (UTC)

MediaMM, see WP:CONTROVERSYSECTION and WP:NOTNEWS. I believe the recent pardons are already covered. – Muboshgu (talk) 18:06, 14 December 2019 (UTC)
Agree with Muboshgu. As someone who has been known to edit articles on unpopular people (John Calipari, Ken Ham), I know that this is why WP:CONTROVERSYSECTION exists. It encourages little one or two sentence "quick hitters" from every outlet that runs a hit piece on a figure they don't like. No context, and a very broad definition of "controversy". Very much like what appears below. How many of these rise to the level of items of lasting historical importance about the subject? A few, certainly, but certainly not all. This perhaps has relevance to the above discussion about the article being too long. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 16:39, 16 December 2019 (UTC)
I strongly oppose "controversy" sections in any biographical article. The content can easily be integrated into the article without such a section or sections. --1990'sguy (talk) 16:24, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Controversies

After appearing on a radio show where he discussed intentionally exposing his children to Chickpox as a way to protect them, members of the medical community responded saying the governor was wrong. Intentionally exposing children to the virus hurts public health efforts and risks dangerous complications.[1]

In July of 2018, as Governor, Matt Bevin caused controversy by expressing surprise that a high school composed primarily of blacks and Hispanics would have a chess team.[2]

In October of 2018, Bevin created a controversial political ad where he was pictured throwing explosive grenades which was called inappropriate and un-diginified.[3]

In March of 2019, a bipartisan polling group found Matt Bevin, "the least popular governor in the nation" as he inflamed people by blaming a Louisville 7-year-old’s shooting on protesting teachers.[4]

Following his gubenatorial loss in 2019, Bevin issued a series of controversial pardons to violent criminals, including the brother of one his campaign donors[5], as well a convicted child rapist[6][7][8].

Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier Journal characterized one of Bevin's final acts as governor, "a final show of pettiness" when the outgoing governor refused to give up access to the governor's mansion to his successor until two hours before his swearing in ceremony, even though he had moved out days earlier.[9]

References

  1. ^ Charles, M.D., Shamard (2019-03-19). "Doctors say Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is wrong about 'chickenpox on purpose'". ABC News. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  2. ^ Jacobo, Julia (2018-07-12). "KY Governor faces criticism over tone-deaf comments made in social media". ABC News. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  3. ^ Novelly, Thomas (2018-10-16). "Matt Bevin goes full Rambo and throws grenades in new Twitter video". Louisville Courier Journal. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  4. ^ Staff, WCPO (2019-04-25). "Survey: Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is the least-popular governor in the United States". WCPO Cincinnati. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  5. ^ Epstein, Kayla (2019-12-13). "Defeated GOP governor pardoned violent criminals in a spree lawyers are calling an 'atrocity of justice'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  6. ^ Miller, Whitney (2019-12-13). "Bevin pardons convicted child rapist from Kenton County". WCPO Cincinatti. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  7. ^ Hannon, Elliot (2019-12-13). "Kentucky's Republican Governor Pardons Hundreds, Including Convicted Murderers and Rapists, Before Leaving Office". Slate.com. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  8. ^ Brookbank, Sarah (2019-12-13). "NKY prosecutor about pardoning child rapist: 'How could any governor be this irresponsible'". Cincinnati.com Enquirer/USA Today. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  9. ^ Gerth, Joseph (2019-12-11). "Gerth: In a final show of pettiness, Bevin keeps Beshear out of mansion until last minute". Louisvilel Courier Journal. Retrieved 2019-12-13.

Child rapist pardoning

To whoever reverted the addition of the child rapist pardoning information - please discuss. This reached international press and is clearly the information most people now know him for. Makes no sense to remove this information from the opening section. Colinmcdermott (talk) 13:43, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Because it does not follow WP:Biographies of living persons standards. "When writing about a person noteworthy only for one or two events, including every detail can lead to problems—even when the material is well sourced. When in doubt, biographies should be pared back to a version that is completely sourced, neutral, and on-topic." Despite your edit being factually correct, it's a one off event that occurred while he was governor which is more noteworthy event for a biography. It also sets a negative tone to the article are also against BLP standards. Your placement of the information should be below the reason why he could do what he did. redlegsfan21 (talk) 14:54, 21 December 2019 (UTC)
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