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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article review. Please do not modify it. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page or at Wikipedia talk:Featured article review. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was kept by YellowAssessmentMonkey 07:46, 22 September 2010 [1].

Michael Brown Okinawa assault incident

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Review commentary

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Michael Brown Okinawa assault incident (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Notified: WikiProject Japan, WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography, WikiProject Military history

I am nominating this featured article for review because...

General problems
  • The article overwhelmingly uses two papers, one US Military paper and one Japanese paper. Using one source from each side is not demonstrative of a neutral point of view; a neutral point of view is to present every side with the weight it is due, not each side with equal weight. On top of this, one source is written by the same person, with the same underlying opinions and biases. I refuse to believe there are no other news organisations which have covered this subject.
  • The lead section is broken up and in tiny paragraphs.
  • You've got sections with a single reference right at the end, and quotations which are not immediately given inline citations.
Specific problems
  • "Early in the morning of November 2, 2002, a female employee of the Camp Courtney officers' club on Okinawa drove up to the Courtney main gate and reported to base security personnel that a Marine Corps major had just attempted to sexually assault her in her car on a deserted road near the back gate of the base. She identified the Marine as Major Michael Brown and stated that during the assault the major threw her mobile phone into the nearby Tengan River. The woman was later identified as V. N. who was 40 years old, and originally from the Philippines, had lived in Okinawa for 17 years, and was married to a Japanese citizen of Okinawan descent. She reported " - reported, twice. Identified, twice.
  • "Michael Brown was at the time 39 years old, was married with two small children, and was a 19-year Marine veteran assigned to the command element of the III Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Courtney on his second tour on Okinawa." - completely unreferenced, and a standalone sentence; should be in a paragraph.
  • What exactly is the JNP? It isn't initially explained or linked.
  • "V. N. repeatedly stated that Brown was innocent and that she wanted to withdraw her complaint. She stated that any contact between her and Brown on the night in question was consensual. V. N. stated that she allowed Brown to fondle and kiss her breasts. At that point, V. N. said, she began to resist and Brown became angry. V. N. testified that when she threatened to call police, Brown threw her cell phone into the [Tengan] river. Angry at the loss of her cell phone, V. N. stated that she then embellished the story when she told it to the guards at the Courtney main gate. V. N. further stated" - stated, four times. [Tengan] shouldn't be there; you don't need to substitute words unless you're quoting something. If you're quoting something, quote it; otherwise, give a source for "Tengan".
  • "13,500US$ " - $13,500", and an equivalent amount in Yen would be useful.
  • Is the subsequent arrest and conviction at all related to or relevant to this case?

Ironholds (talk) 19:20, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

FARC commentary

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Featured article criterion of concern are prose, research, citations, POV YellowMonkey (vote in the Southern Stars and White Ferns supermodel photo poll) 07:22, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I forgot about this. I'll fix the concerns next week. I'll add some more references from Infotrac. I don't agree, however, that a single source is a problem. It was primarily the Stars and Stripes that covered this story in English. Based on a quick perusal of Infotrac, some other sources noted some of the events in the article, but not many. Nevertheless, I'll add them next week and work on the other concerns. Cla68 (talk) 07:57, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  1. I fixed the intro and added additional refs from ProQuest NewsStand and Infotrac [2]. Cla68 (talk) 06:27, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • "(aka Alford pleas, from North Carolina v. Alford)" needs a citation; elsewhere I can see two new sources, both from the same newspaper. Is there honestly no other coverage of this? Not sure if the image concerns have been addressed Ironholds (talk) 12:24, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The majority of coverage being from two sources only? I've explained above, it causes serious NPOV problems. If, however, those are honestly the only sources available, I guess that IS all the coverage and thus neutral - I'll keep shtum about the whole thing. Ironholds (talk) 00:13, 4 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment. Although some of the reviewers here have made some helpful improvements to the article, I guess I just don't have time to fix all the concerns that remain, since it appears to have been left to me to fix most of them. If the decision is made to delist, then I guess I'll have to renominate it for FAC if I ever get around to addressing the concerns. Cla68 (talk) 00:31, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Final concerns
  • "August 14, 2009 Brown entered a nolo contendere plea (aka Alford pleas, from North Carolina v. Alford)" still needs a citation.
    • I rewrote and resourced this a little bit. He actually entered a Kennedy plea, which from what I can tell is the same as an Alford plea and is a type of nolo contendere plea. I'm not a lawyer, however, so I may have just mucked it up completely. Dana boomer (talk) 15:43, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The lead is far too short, barely one paragraph in its own right.
  • "Brown's family hired Gene Warfield, an American ex-special forces soldier who had lived on Okinawa for 17 years" - in Okinawa, surely?
  • "Over the next three days of testimony, V. N. repeatedly stated that Brown was innocent and that she wanted to withdraw her complaint. She stated that any contact between her and Brown on the night in question was consensual. V. N. stated" - stated, stated, stated! You've had what, a month to fix these problems?
    • I played with this a little bit to try to make it less repetitive. Not sure that I succeeded, however! Let me know if there are any other synonyms for "stated" that you can think of :) Dana boomer (talk) 15:43, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ironholds (talk) 01:51, 20 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

  • I'm going to try to take over the work on this article, since it is very close to saving. I've responded to the above concerns. Please let me know if there is further work to be done. Dana boomer (talk) 15:54, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment Short paragraphs in lede, including two-sentence-long-paragraph, this should probably be expanded, or merged. References subsection should be retooled, to conform better with WP:LAYOUT - ie instead of so many separate subsection, should just have one stand-alone subsection for Notes, and one other one for References. -- Cirt (talk) 16:34, 7 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Far better; thanks, Dana. I've got no more problems to report. Ironholds (talk) 17:42, 13 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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