Talk:Philip S. Goldberg

First Draft of Goldberg Biography

I have just completed a first draft of a biography of US Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg. It is very well sourced. There are 28 sources for the article and every single sentence in the article has a citation. I have tried to provide a balanced portrait of Goldberg. Obviously, his tenure as Ambassador to Bolivia was very controversial. However, in each of the subtopics I have tried to provide both sides of each argument e.g. when Goldberg was prohibited from entering the Presidential Palace by President Morales, I have tried to convey how the Bolivian President took Goldberg's remarks about moving Disney Headquarters as an insult but I also take Goldberg at his word that his statement was probably an offhand remark that was made in a spirit of jest trying to reduce tensions between Bolivia and the United States.

Perhaps I am naive, but I do not subscribe the conspiracy theories that I have seen on the internet that make the argument that Goldberg was sent to Bolivia to destabilize Bolivia or help create conditions to topple Morales. However, it did became very apparent reading through the entire chronology of Goldberg's tenure in Bolivia that relations between Bolivia and the United States were very tense from the beginning and feelings just escalated from there. The situation of violence that has gripped Bolivia today is a tragedy and the expulsion of Goldberg is also a personal tragedy for him and his family. Sometimes the best of intentions can go wrong and it seems that this may be one of those cases where you have a good man but he is not the right man for the job at hand. In any case, I think the State Department was remiss in not recalling Goldberg for his own good and for the good of bi-lateral relations with Bolivia after the initial story broke in February 2008 about the security briefings for Peace Corps Volunteers. For a good example of what the right ambassador can do in a difficult situation, read the article about Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn that I wrote a few months ago and Vaughn's success in defusing tensions after he was sent as Ambassador to Panama after the anti-American riots in that country in 1964.

Best Regards,

Reservoirhill (talk) 17:39, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Is Whoopi Goldberg Jewish? Is Adam Goldberg Jewish?

86.143.159.186 has added an edit that "Goldberg is Jewish" to the article. It sounds like 86.143.159.186 has made the logical jump that "every person whose last name is Goldberg must be Jewish" and that doesn't hold water because we have provided a counterexample in the title to this section. Actually although many people consider Goldberg a Jewish surname, in fact its origin is German and comes from the city of Goldberg. Actor Adam Goldberg is another person who shares that surname, who according to halachah, or Jewish law, is not Jewish.

"When the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte overran all of Europe including Germany and Poland, he decreed that all Jews must adopt modern European names as first demanded by the French revolutionary (1789) government. Thereupon the Jews of Europe adopted many geographical names such as Rosenberg or mountain of roses, Goldberg or Silverberg or Lilienthal or valley of the lilies. If a Jew did not adopt such a name, then the state chose a name for him."

The edit does not include a citation. I have tagged the statement that it needs a citation. That means someone has to find an article about Philip Goldberg that states explicitly what his religion is. We'll let it stand for now, but will delete the statement in a month if no one can provide a citation.

Best regards,

Reservoirhill (talk) 17:20, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Copyvio

Much of this page has been blanked per User talk:Moonriddengirl#User:Reservoirhill. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:34, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

there appears to be m=no basis for this copyvio. moved to end of page.

this page refers to an issue of current news and needs to be available and open to editing NOW. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.172.0.101 (talk) 07:02, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Please do not expose material that is undergoing a copyright investigation. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 19:31, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

I do not think there are any Copyright Violations in the article on Philip Goldberg

On November 18, 2008 Tagishsimon placed a copyright violation tag on the Philip Goldberg article.

I do not think there are any copyright violations in the article on Philip Goldberg.

Let's just go through the quotations in the article one by one and see if any of them are copyright violations.

Use of Quotations

First a word about quotations in general and Wikipedia's policy about the use of quotations. Quotations should meet four criteria: First they must be sourced., Second, editors should try to work quotations into the body of the article, rather than in a stand-alone quote section, Third, while quotations are an indispensable part of Wikipedia, try not to overuse them, Fourth, there is normally no need to put quotations in italics unless the material would otherwise call for italics.

I think that the use of quotations in the Goldberg article meet the four criteria and they "illuminate the meaning to support the arguments of the work in which it is being quoted." Other editors may differ on criteria 3 but unless there is an objective way to measure "overuse", criteria 3 will be a matter of writing style or opinion.

Categories of Quotations used in the article

Now we will move on to the issue of whether the use of quotations in the Philip Goldberg article violates copyright which was the tag placed on the article.

First every quotation used in the article will fit into one of three categories:

• Statements made by US Ambassador Philip Goldberg in his capacity as an Appointed Official of the US Federal Government

• Statements made by other Officials of the US Federal Government

• Statements made by others

Note: I am excluding from consideration single words of short phrases in quotes such as "meddling," "reestablish a democratic government in the country," "undesirable person," "spying incident," and "burned tires, threw dynamite and fired pepper spray" as these short phrases are obviously Fair Use.

Statements made by US Ambassador Philip Goldberg in his capacity as an Appointed Official of the US Federal Government

All works by the United States (federal) government are in the public domain. This is true whether the work is published or unpublished. A work is a US government work if it was prepared by an officer or employee of the federal government as part of that person's office duties. "Officer" includes all elected and appointed officials of all branches of the US government - for example,, the president, members of Congress, cabinet members, and judges, as well as lower-level US government officials and members of the federal bureaucracy.

Ambassador Philip Goldberg is an official of the US federal government. Anything he says or writes as part of his official duties in his capacity as an official of the US federal government becomes part of public domain including what he says or writes in speeches, press releases, newspaper stories, or interviews.

These include the following quotations from Mr. Goldberg during his tenure as Ambassador to Bolivia that are used in his Wikipedia article:

• Goldberg said "it is very important that the new government succeeds."

• Goldberg said the process was "well under way" and that "we are very active in trying to reach a resolution of the final-status decision."

• "Nobody at the embassy has ever asked American citizens to participate in intelligence activities here," said U.S. Ambassador Goldberg. "But I want to say that I greatly regret the incident that was made known this weekend."

• "What happened was that one of our security officers went to brief Peace Corps workers on security [measures] in Bolivia. During the course of that briefing he started going into areas that are ordinarily reserved for direct American employees—which the Peace Corps are not—basically telling them to be careful about third country people who might want to take advantage of them," said Goldberg. " He should not have gone over that ground, but it was not a request for them to do anything. And this has been blown up way out of proportion."

• "The situation in Bolivia had deteriorated to the point of confrontation. And I think it became very easy to blame the United States for that," said Goldberg, going on to claim "It was part of the general policy of the Bolivian government for Morales to attack the United States."

All of these statements by Mr. Goldberg were made while he was a member of the State Department as part of his job and as such they are in the public domain and so their use cannot be copyright violation. Note also that the criteria of substantiality or size of the quote is a criteria that is use for Fair Use determination. That criteria does not apply to quotations that meet the requirements for Public Domain.

Statements made by other Officials of the US Federal Government

The same rationale that applied to Goldberg's quotes applies to other statements made by US government officials in their official capacity including the Press Secretary for the State Department, the President, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and other unamed spokespersons for the Department of State or the United States Peace Corps. Note that in all these cases it is not a matter of applying the four criteria for Fair Use including substantiallity of the excerpt. Under the rule that all works by the United States (federal) government are in the public domain we could use as large an excerpt as we wanted. The key is that the work was created by a US government official. The quotations in the article on Philip Goldberg that fall under this category are the following:

• [State Department spokesman Tom Casey strongly rejected Morales' charges.] "There is absolutely no truth to any allegation that the U.S. is using its aid funds to try and influence the political process, or in any way undermine the government there," Casey said.

• [Peace Corps Deputy Director for Bolivia Doreen Salazar was present at the meeting and found the comments so out of line that she interrupted the briefing to clarify that volunteers did not have to follow the embassy's instructions and Salazar protested directly to the embassy.] "We made it clear to the embassy that this was an inappropriate request, and they agreed."

• [US Embassy Security Officer Vincent Cooper, in a routine safety briefing, asked the student] "If you should encounter any Venezuelans or Cubans in the field—doctors, field workers, etc.—the embassy would like you to report their names and something like where they’re located to the embassy."

• [The United States Peace Corps issued a press release reiterating that no Peace Corps volunteers had participated in intelligence activities and that it remained Peace Corps policy that there was an absolute separation between] "any official duties pertaining to U.S. foreign policy, including the reality or the appearance of involvement in intelligence related activities." The Press Release added that "Consistent with the policy of every administration since 1961, Director Ron Tschetter, himself a former Volunteer in India (1966-1968), has been very clear in re-affirming this long standing policy and, once again, stressing that Peace Corps Volunteers work on community service and nothing else."

• "In response to the unwarranted action and in accordance with the Vienna Convention, we have officially informed the government of Bolivia of our decision to declare Ambassador Gustavo Guzman persona non grata," a State Department spokesperson said.

• "This was not hasty decision [sic]," said State Department spokesman David Johnson. "Bolivia remains a major narcotics-producing country and its official policies and actions have caused a significant deterioration in its cooperation with the United States."

• [Bush announced on October 16 as he signed the Andean Trade Preference Act Extension that] "Bolivia has failed to cooperate with the United States on important efforts to fight drug trafficking. So, sadly, I have proposed to suspend Bolivia's trade preferences until it fulfills its obligations." However officials in Bolivia see the trade suspension as part of an escalating feud between the United States and Bolivia.

• "It was regrettable that we had to suspend Bolivia," said US deputy assistant secretary of state Christopher J. McMullen. "This is going to be a major blow, I think, for Bolivia in terms of losing these jobs.

All of these statements are by Officials of the US government as part of their jobs and as such they are in the public domain and so their use cannot be copyright violation. Again note also that the criteria of substantiality or size of the quote is a criteria that is use for Fair Use determination. That criteria does not apply to quotations that meet the requirements for Public Domain.

Statements made by others

This final category are quotations that do not fall into the other two categories i.e. statements made by non-US government officials. The rationale for using these excerpts relies on the traditional four criteria for Fair Use. Wikipedia Policy is that Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. Copyrighted text must be attributed and used verbatim. Any alterations must be clearly marked, i.e. [brackets] for added text, an ellipsis (...) for removed text, and emphasis noted after the quotation as "(emphasis added)" or "(emphasis in the original)". Extensive quotation of copyrighted text is prohibited.

The question then comes down to what is brief. My contention is that the following quotations used in the Philip Goldberg article, each coming from a separate source, are brief and thus meet the Fair Use criteria:

• "I regret that some ambassadors are getting involved in politics and criticizing the country," said Morales.

• "My ministers here are subjected to hours and hours of controls at the airport," Morales said.

• "There's a sense that the whole relationship [with Bolivia] has been kind of poisoned," says Latin America expert Michael Shifter.

• [The Telegraph reported on September 12, 2008 that Goldberg had infuriated Morales the previous week when Goldberg] "met with Ruben Costas, the governor of Bolivia's richest province, that of Santa Cruz, which wants autonomy and has threatened secession." and "He is conspiring against democracy and seeking the division of Bolivia," said Morales. "Without fear of the empire, I declare Mr Goldberg, the US ambassador, 'persona non grata."

• "The message received, since it occurred amid the escalation in violence, that message was distorted in the perception of many Bolivians," said Adam Isacson of the Washington-based foreign policy think-tank Center for International Policy. "It may have been seen as an approval of the acts of violence."

• "Generally, it’s a bad idea to tie foreign aid programs that are in the American interest to the behavior of foreign governments," wrote the Times. "Decertifying unhelpful countries in the drug wars always seemed particularly wrongheaded, a surefire way to anger allies and undermine support for Washington’s objectives in Latin America."

• "You have to say that the traditional relationship that Bolivia had with the United States . . . has come to an end. I believe this is the worst moment for the relations between the United States and the entire world. The worst moment," said Juan Ramón Quintana, Bolivia's minister of the presidency.

All of these statements meet Wikipedia's criteria for Fair Use and they all come from different sources so there is no overuse of the same source.

Conclusion

I think that every quotation used in the Philip Goldberg article falls either into the category of Public Domain or Fair Use and therefor the copyright violation tag should be removed from the article.

There may be some issues with the style of writing employed. There may be some issues with the use of citations for every sentence in the article. These are different issues that I will be glad to discuss. Right now we are discussing the copyright violation tag which I have addressed in this post.

I will be addressing the copyright violation issues on the Rick Benjamin article as soon as possible. The Esperanza Spalding article does need some work that I will get to in a few days.

Best regards,

Reservoirhill (talk) 22:49, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Response

Hello. In using quoted text, we need to consider WP:NFC, which sets out the limited circumstances under which quotes should be used and specifically advises against extensive use of quotations. I had planned to clean this up by tightening the use of quotes; however, I see that there may be concerns about material not marked as quotes. For example, our article says, "In August 2007, Government Minister Juan Ramon Quintana claimed the United States was "meddling" in Bolivia and had been sending millions of dollars in aid to conservative opposition leaders and think-tanks critical of Bolivian President Evo Morales." Only the word "meddling" is in quotes. However, the sentence follows very closely on the source: "Government Minister Juan Ramon Quintana claimed the United States was "meddling" in Bolivian politics by channeling millions of dollars in aid to conservative opposition leaders and think-tanks critical of Morales, a fierce U.S. critic." (I have bolded for clarity where text is duplicated in our article.) This is not simply a matter of overuse of quotations, I'm afraid, but unmarked duplication of phrases of text from an external source. We can't duplicate phrases or sentences from an external source unless it is public domain or licensed compatibly with GFDL. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 19:52, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Just to note that I am finding more along these lines, including the following: our article: "Quintana said the government had documents from the US Government Aid agency, USAID, that referred to the need to fund programs to "reestablish a democratic government in the country.""(bold added) Source: "Quintana said the government had discovered internal documents from the United States Agency for International Development, known as USAID, that referred to the need to fund programs to "reestablish a democratic government in the country.""(bold added) Clearly an effort has been made to revise this material, but I'm afraid it follows too closely on the source for us to use it. (In copyright law, this is referred to as "fragmented literal similarity", and it's the same concept that applies to music sampling in songs.) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 20:37, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

An example from a different source. Our article: "found the comments so out of line that she interrupted the briefing to clarify that volunteers did not have to follow the embassy's instructions" Source: "found the comment so out of line that they interrupted the briefing to clarify that volunteers did not have to follow the embassy's instructions" (again, bolding is all mine, to help clarify the problem). This material is not in quotes, but substantially duplicates the source. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 22:10, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

External links modified

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