Talk:Charles Francis Murphy

Untitled

The person has a page long biography in Britannica. MGTom 00:30, 2005 Mar 5 (UTC)

Critique of the Article

This Wikipedia article on Murphy is lacking in substantial information, correct information, organization, and is poorly written. Overall, the Wikipedia article has substantially less information about different facets of Murphy’s life. First, the introduction or the first piece of information next to Murphy’s name and lifespan reads”… [Murphy] was a U.S. political figure. Head of New York City's Tammany Hall from 1902–1924, he was the most powerful boss in Tammany's history”. The sentence is a very general statement that includes an opinion that he was the most powerful boss in Tammany Hall history, which has no sources and no facts to prove it credibility. The “Life and Career” section is missing his parents’ names, specific information about what jobs he had worked, leaves gaps of time prior to his ascension to head of Tammany Hall, as well as misstating who he succeeded as Tammany Hall boss. This section of information is crucial as to providing readers and researchers alike with a background story of Murphy and how he rose to power, which is shortchanged in the Wikipedia article. The next part of the “Life and Career” section in the Wikipedia article is missing information such as why Murphy had to act respectable to change the face of Tammany, due to the poor image it had been seen as from the past, as well as his help in the impeachment of Governor William Sulzer, whom Murphy formerly supported. The fact that he was involved in the impeachment process of a former supported candidate of his demonstrates the fierceness of the politics Murphy prided himself on. Also, the information about how Murphy realized that by backing certain legislation, he would gain votes which he needed is too general. Lastly, there is only two pieces of information that is cited out of the entire section. That information states that Murphy gained the southern and eastern European immigrant vote until his death, and how he died. This leaves the reader with no sense of the author’s credibility due to a lack of cited information, as well as, questions on where the author got his or her information from. The credibility of an article also relies upon the credibility of the author, in this situation, beginning with the American National Biography article author, Dr .Nedda C. Allbray. Dr. Allbray is a scholar, author, and professor who has taught at Brooklyn College, Baruch College, Queens College, and St. Peter’s College. She has also written articles for the magazines, Jewish World and The Phoenix. Dr. Allbray researches cultural, historical, and sociological aspects within Cities and is active in preserving landmarks. The main authors of the Wikipedia article are Walter Finch and two other authors who do not have a page for information about themselves on Wikipedia, by the usernames of Remclaecsec and Tusixoh. The only information Walter Finch discloses on his biography page explains that he is in the process of editing articles related to the Nero Wolfe series of novels by Rex Stout, which is not related to Charles F. Murphy in any way. Finch’s lack of knowledge towards Murphy and the lack of information on the other two authors only add to the fact that this article is not credible. The other authors listed on the History tab have only added a piece of information that is not crucial to the Biography of Murphy, or are bots that patrol articles on Wikipedia. As far as the references in the Wikipedia article, they are rare and are average in quality. There are seven in total, four of which come from magazines, one from an encyclopedia, one from a book about the movie Citizen Kane, and the final from a non-scholarly website. These sources do not compare to the American National Biography page’s sources, as the sources come from Columbia University, the New York Times, and the book Charles Francis Murphy, 1858-1924: Respectability and Responsibility in Tammany Politic, which was written by Nancy Joan Weiss who was a professor of History at Princeton University. Concluding, there are two final things that add to the final conclusion that this article is not credible, the fact that there are no disputes on the Talk page and there is poor organization in the article. There are no disputes in the Talk section of the page which can lead some to believe that that must mean that the page is perfect. This is not the case, as the reason for the lack of disputes in this section is due to lack of experts viewing this information. Most of the editors have no background in Social Justice or History, so how would there be any disputes? The last aspect that makes this article not credible is the organization when compared to the American National Biography article, being that it is broken up into three sections that are two broad. The main section of the article, Life and Career, combines Murphy’s entire life into one short section. This could be fixed by breaking the section into three sub sections, Early Life, Political Career and Tammany Hall, Later Political Involvements, and Death. The organization of the American National Biography page is logical and coherent, even though it is one big section. The article flows through each part of Murphy’s life and ends in his death, successfully outlining his life. The Wikipedia page provides a short overview of a long life that is represented in one main short section. Due to this reason, the inconsistencies in information, lack of sources, lack of information on the editors, lack sources and sources of good quality, this Wikipedia article in not credible. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Huntercriscione (talk • contribs) 20:28, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

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