Talk:Michael McFaul

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Michael McFaul article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This page is not a forum for general discussion about Michael McFaul. Any such comments may be removed or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. You may wish to ask factual questions about Michael McFaul at the Reference desk.

The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to articles about living or recently deceased people, and edits relating to the subject (living or recently deceased) of such biographical articles, which has been designated as a contentious topic.

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

A fact from Michael McFaul appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 7 June 2011 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that US Ambassador to Russia nominee Michael McFaul was denounced by a member of the Russian Parliament days before someone shot a bullet through his Stanford University office window?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/June.

Wikipedia

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Politics and Government / Science and Academia

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the politics and government work group.
	This article is supported by the science and academia work group.

University of Oxford Low‑importance

	University of Oxford portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject University of Oxford, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the University of Oxford on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.University of OxfordWikipedia:WikiProject University of OxfordTemplate:WikiProject University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

International relations Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject International relations, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of International relations on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.International relationsWikipedia:WikiProject International relationsTemplate:WikiProject International relationsInternational relations articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Montana Mid‑importance

	Montana portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Montana, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Montana on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MontanaWikipedia:WikiProject MontanaTemplate:WikiProject MontanaMontana articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

United States Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Russia: History / Politics and law Low‑importance

	Russia portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Russia, a WikiProject dedicated to coverage of Russia on Wikipedia. To participate: Feel free to edit the article attached to this page, join up at the project page, or contribute to the project discussion.RussiaWikipedia:WikiProject RussiaTemplate:WikiProject RussiaRussia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the history of Russia task force.
	This article is supported by the politics and law of Russia task force.

Stanford University Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Stanford University, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Stanford University on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Stanford UniversityWikipedia:WikiProject Stanford UniversityTemplate:WikiProject Stanford UniversityStanford University articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

California: San Francisco Bay Area Low‑importance

	California portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject California, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CaliforniaWikipedia:WikiProject CaliforniaTemplate:WikiProject CaliforniaCalifornia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	San Francisco Bay Area portal This article is supported by San Francisco Bay Area task force.

SAT?

Michael McFaul is a renowned scholar on Russia and democracy, the inclusion of what he got in the SAT when he was 16 is rather trite. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.233.20.105 (talk) 04:10, 20 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Copyvio

Just for the record, I have deleted the bulk of the text from this article, as it was an almost word for word copy/paste from http://seaf.stanford.edu/people/michaelamcfaul/. Joshdboz (talk) 06:48, 21 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Radical

I'm not sure "radical" is an appropriate term for McFaul. It implies that he is somehow outside of the mainstream. In fact two days ago (19 Feb 2009) he was appointed director of the White House National Security Council: http://fsi.stanford.edu/news/stanfords_michael_mcfaul_named_special_assistant_to_the_president_for_national_security_affairs_and_senior_director_at_the_national_security_council_20090219/

Without anymore context, his quote also seems misleading. It is an old passage from 2002, and his viewpoints have seemed to evolve over the years. I am deleting his quote, adding in the factual information about his appointment and I will leave it up to others to explain his positions. Kramer (talk) 15:05, 21 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Confrontation with NTV

If someone can add this to the article or find better sources. McFaul is allegedly being harassed by news reporters.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137410/timothy-naftali/george-kennan-michael-mcfaul-and-their-paranoid-hosts?page=show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiSbnW0llCw — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.163.111 (talk) 02:23, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to one external link on Michael McFaul. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/20111126173242/http://www.senate.gov:80/galleries/pdcl/index.htm to http://www.senate.gov/galleries/pdcl/index.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 10:26, 20 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Michael McFaul. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20120101030507/http://politicalscience.stanford.edu:80/faculty/michael-mcfaul to https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/faculty/michael-mcfaul

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 03:13, 18 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 12 external links on Michael McFaul. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Corrected formatting/usage for http://cddrl.stanford.edu/people/michaelmcfaul/
Corrected formatting/usage for https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/30/michael_mcfaul_undiplomat?page=full
Corrected formatting/usage for http://news.stanford.edu/pr/01/mcfaulprofile1128.html
Corrected formatting/usage for https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/world/europe/29envoy.html
Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.1tv.ru/news/leontiev/196647
Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.senate.gov/galleries/pdcl/index.htm
Corrected formatting/usage for https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/world/europe/russia.html
Corrected formatting/usage for https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/world/europe/john-f-tefft-a-career-diplomat-will-go-to-russia.html
Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.vz.ru/politics/2012/1/17/554224.html
Corrected formatting/usage for http://vz.ru/news/2012/1/30/557576.html
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140508043536/http://russiaprofile.org/experts_panel/53857.html to http://russiaprofile.org/experts_panel/53857.html
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070509130804/http://www.carnegieendowment.org/experts/index.cfm?fa=expert_view&expert_id=19 to http://www.carnegieendowment.org/experts/index.cfm?fa=expert_view&expert_id=19

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 23:57, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Political views

This information has been reverted:

In July 2019, McFaul wrote that Communist Party of China's officials "champion the advantages of their system — an ability to undertake massive infrastructure projects, the capacity to manage income inequalities and a commitment to harmony in government and society. In contrast, polarized U.S. politics in the Trump era seem to impede any major initiative, be it infrastructure development or addressing income inequality."^[1]

References

^ "China is winning the ideological battle with the U.S." The Washington Post. July 23, 2019.

I think it is relevant and should be included. -- Tobby72 (talk) 18:45, 20 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Why? The best way to gauge relevance here is probably to look at whether or not anyone else covered the opinion - I don't see evidence of that. There's no real context for this quote, and people write editorials all the time. I'm not sure why we would choose to include this one. Nblund^talk 19:45, 20 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I also fail to understand why this should be included. Or why you chose to place this under "Career". McFaul is a Global Opinions Writer for the Washington Post so it's no surprise that he has publicly held views. I'm cursious as to why this passage, and only this one, belongs to this page. Pilaz (talk) 11:00, 25 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Glaring omission: Ukraine

This article needs a good section regarding McFaul's role as US ambassador during the 2013-14 Ukraine crisis. All the more important in light of his nearly ubiquitous presence on US television during the current Ukraine crisis. Anomalous+0 (talk) 08:13, 13 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I would agree but I can't find any source on his role in that period, can you? He was sometimes mentioned in Ukraine news in passing for some tweet, and he made some statement after resigning, but I can't quickly find much more. Nemo 09:33, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Maddow show comments 03-11-22

https://twitter.com/maddowblog/status/1502499687290617856?s=21 McFaul seems to have appeared on MSNBC advocating a position that Adolf Hitler’s victims who died in the Holocaust were not German. This seems to me to be a position advocated by German Nazis notably contrary to fact, and as a particular ideological aim of those Nazis in order to maintain domestic German political support for the Holocaust. Discussion of these remarks may continue in coming days and will probably merit mention on McFaul’s page here as a notable part of his record as a public and diplomatic figure.2601:193:8301:AA30:B898:9016:EB4D:F34E (talk) 09:53, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If the only source for this is Twitter, then I would support removing it as unencyclopedic trivia. McFaul's comparison of Hitler and Putin was dumb, but the Maddow Blog's follow-up tweet claiming that "Hitler killed millions of Germans" is equally dumb. Best to just stay off Twitter...TheTimesAreAChanging (talk) 06:32, 14 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This Fox News article on the dust-up is of reasonably good quality and may help to establish notability, despite Fox's reputation as a biased source (with completely unhinged talk shows). I note that McFaul included "German-speaking people" in his remarks, which is particularly dumb, since obviously the 130,000–160,000 German Jews murdered in the Holocaust spoke German.TheTimesAreAChanging (talk) 07:16, 14 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There seems to have been quite a lot of coverage of this.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] One source linked it with a similarly unusual statement by the Atlantic Council's Anders Åslund, who said "Hitler did not use chemical weapons".^[9] These sorts of comments prompted Richard Medhurst to say "Liberals have now stooped to the level of “well, you know, Hitler wasn’t that bad actually ...” ". The Auschwitz Memorial contacted the show to say: "On a factual note: Hitler did kill ethnic Germans & German-speaking people: those who opposed the Nazi regime, those who resisted, those who did not fit into the ‘Weltanschauung,'". McFaul later said that he "slipped late last night and violated an unwritten taboo-- never compare Hitler with anyone. I agree. He was incomparably evil. I won't do it again." Burrobert (talk) 14:26, 14 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes there are many sources on the incident but I think there's no need to chronicle every detail of it. In case we need a factual source here are transcripts of the day and more recordings with captions. Nemo 09:42, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ "MSNBC Torched For Claiming 'Hitler Didn't Kill Ethnic Germans'". The Daily Wire. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ "Fake News MSNBC Torched For Claiming 'Hitler Didn't Kill Ethnic Germans' | Fake News MSNBC and guest Michael McFaul were blasted online over remarks that he made on the network's "The That Dude Rachel Maddow Show" and a tweet that was later posted by the Maddow Blog about Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. "I think people need to remember that we're talking about cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol and". USSA News. 13 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ "MSNBC Guest Michael McFaul Apologizes for Mistaken Comparison of Putin to Hitler". The Wrap. 12 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ "MSNBC Deletes Michael McFaul's Comment That Hitler Didn't Kill 'Ethnic Germans' - Digg". digg.com. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ Bolies, Corbin (12 March 2022). "MSNBC Deletes Michael McFaul's Comment That Hitler Didn't Kill 'Ethnic Germans'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ "MSNBC Deletes Michael McFaul's Comment That Hitler Didn't Kill 'Ethnic Germans'". www.yahoo.com. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ Halon, Yael (13 March 2022). "MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show removes tweet of guest's Hitler claim after Auschwitz Memorial proves it false". Fox News. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ "Hitler didn't kill ethnic Germans unlike Putin to Russians: MSNBC guest". Washington Examiner. 12 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ Huber, Dave (12 March 2022). "History forgotten: Academics claim Hitler didn't kill ethnic Germans, use chemical weapons". The College Fix. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

How President Zelenskyy could get the help he needs from NATO.

Zelenskyy needs to have a private meeting with NATO and give them 10 days to put a no fly zone over Ukraine, provide an exit for the sick and injured citizens, and security for the troops who are dying everyday. If NATO refuses, after 10 days President Zelenskyy should lay down their weapons and save his people by heading for the borders. In other words, let NATO figure out how to keep Russia out of their country, which would be a very difficult job with Russia having all of Ukraine to position Russian troops closer to their borders.

It is in NATO's, if not the world's best intrest to protect all of Ukraine, every inch!

D. Bradley 71.85.244.102 (talk) 04:19, 29 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Closed - Wikipedia is not a discussion forum. Pilaz (talk) 15:07, 29 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Discriminatory statements

I hope I provided enough links for this section to exist? Or are you not allowed to tell the truth here? 176.50.83.113 (talk) 14:25, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm seriously contesting the allegation that those are discriminatory statements: two tweets without context editorialized like this do not comply with WP:NPOV. Also, WP:ONUS: why should we add this? Pilaz (talk) 14:50, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Is the ban on Russians vacationing in Spain and using foreign goods not discrimination based on citizenship? Let's write apartheid. Are you afraid to write the truth?

Without context? He is in Spain and then he sees that they speak Russian and begins to be indignant, how dare the Russians come to Spain, let them rest in their own country! Is this not discrimination in his words? Not for dogs, blacks and Mexicans, it seems that this has not been welcomed for a long time? Or is this possible about Russians? Second tweet in the same vein.Do you want to write an encyclopedia or retouch politicians? 176.50.83.113 (talk) 15:41, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

WP:UNDUE i think would apply unless its's part of a pattern, and it would also need enough secondary coverage. MartinezMD (talk) 15:53, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Can I write here that this gentleman participated in the sanctions, including the seizure of investments of Russian citizens in US companies? He's all so white and fluffy. he tries to work but it’s not reflected in his biography. $350 billion from 15 million Russian citizens, this is good work that should be reflected here

https://fsi9-prod.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-04/russia_sanctions_working_paper_1_sanctions_action_plan.pdf

or is that not convincing? that the Russian version, that the English one somehow started saying no no, we can’t publish this. Why? 176.50.83.113 (talk) 16:03, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Cherry picked tweets are primary sources. Without good secondary coverage they have no due weight for mention here. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 17:22, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

see WP:PRIMARY and WP:SECONDARY in the reliable source section of WP. MartinezMD (talk) 01:40, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "China is winning the ideological battle with the U.S." The Washington Post. July 23, 2019.

[2] "MSNBC Torched For Claiming 'Hitler Didn't Kill Ethnic Germans'". The Daily Wire. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[3] "Fake News MSNBC Torched For Claiming 'Hitler Didn't Kill Ethnic Germans' | Fake News MSNBC and guest Michael McFaul were blasted online over remarks that he made on the network's "The That Dude Rachel Maddow Show" and a tweet that was later posted by the Maddow Blog about Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. "I think people need to remember that we're talking about cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol and". USSA News. 13 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[4] "MSNBC Guest Michael McFaul Apologizes for Mistaken Comparison of Putin to Hitler". The Wrap. 12 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[5] "MSNBC Deletes Michael McFaul's Comment That Hitler Didn't Kill 'Ethnic Germans' - Digg". digg.com. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[6] Bolies, Corbin (12 March 2022). "MSNBC Deletes Michael McFaul's Comment That Hitler Didn't Kill 'Ethnic Germans'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[7] "MSNBC Deletes Michael McFaul's Comment That Hitler Didn't Kill 'Ethnic Germans'". www.yahoo.com. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[8] Halon, Yael (13 March 2022). "MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show removes tweet of guest's Hitler claim after Auschwitz Memorial proves it false". Fox News. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[9] "Hitler didn't kill ethnic Germans unlike Putin to Russians: MSNBC guest". Washington Examiner. 12 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[10] Huber, Dave (12 March 2022). "History forgotten: Academics claim Hitler didn't kill ethnic Germans, use chemical weapons". The College Fix. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

[1]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]