Wikipedia:Mandy Rice-Davies does not apply

Mandy Rice-Davies, after whom this essay is named, in November 1964 at Schiphol Airport railway station, Netherlands

When Wikipedia articles about living public figures mention an accusation of bad behavior, Wikipedia needs to include their denial. Like all essays, this one presents the views of its authors and it is not a Wikipedia policy; it should be interpreted in conformity with the applicable policy.

On many occasions, the removal or omission of denials has been explained by asserting that such content is insignificant or creates "false balance", despite those denials having been widely reported in reliable sources. However, proper balance and weight can almost always be achieved by expanding our description of an allegation or conversely by shrinking our description of its denial, without omitting the denial entirely; comments showing how secondary sources report the denial can also be included, per WP:NPOV. Moreover, the WP:Biographies of Living Persons (BLP) policy does not require denials be mentioned if a person has been "convicted by a court of law", in which case they can be presumed guilty.

This subject has been debated extensively by Wikipedia editors. Our BLP policy currently states that when allegations are sourced well enough to be included in a BLP article, then "If the subject has denied such allegations, their denial(s) should be reported too."

A common retort to the BLP policy on denials is to paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies: "Well he would deny it, wouldn't he?" But that is no grounds for disregarding the policy, or even grounds for changing the policy. After all, the most common inference from the absence of a denial is that the accusation is true, so omitting a denial is a very serious matter. Editors who oppose giving accused people a right of reply should at least acknowledge that WP:BLP takes a different position than they do, when it comes to denials.

Counterarguments do not withstand scrutiny

One counterargument is that a person denying that they have certain controversial views will often have "no credibility", supposedly because it is in their interest to deny it. However, many people who hold such views will readily admit that they are white nationalists, anti-vaccination activists, and so forth. Others will deny accusations with qualifications or with equivocation. Still others may simply decline to comment on an accusation. If we do not accompany an accusation with its denial, then our readers by and large will not assume the existence of one.

Many readers are accustomed to the journalistic standard of including denials. Failing to include a denial in an encyclopedia hence could mislead readers who might conclude that the subject did not deny the accusation. Nor does the famous remark of Ms. Rice-Davies ("well he would, wouldn't he?") suggest that she felt it improper for Astor's denial to be described in court, in newspapers, or anywhere else, only that she held his untruth to be self-evident.

Wikipedia's role, as an encyclopedia, is to summarize the significant perspectives on a topic in proportion to their weight in reliable sources, not to be arbiter of what is "the truth". Wikipedia articles are not court trials. As the second pillar states,

We strive for articles in an impartial tone that document and explain major points of view, giving due weight for their prominence. We avoid advocacy, and we characterize information and issues rather than debate them. In some areas there may be just one well-recognized point of view; in others, we describe multiple points of view, presenting each accurately and in context rather than as "the truth" or "the best view".

Wikipedia:Due weight says that we omit fringe views except in articles devoted to those views, but a denial will typically be covered widely enough to merit at least a brief mention to reflect mainstream due weight, even in a Wikipedia article that is not entirely devoted to the subject who is being accused. Immediately after a paragraph describing how someone was caught on camera committing a crime, due weight may call for saying simply that "X denies that he is the person in the footage", or merely "she denies it". That requires less space than standard information such as death date, death location, or middle name of a person long dead, none of which has ever been considered undue weight even if sourced to only a single reliable source; the fact that an accusation has been denied is just as indisputable as any other standard information. The denial should be mentioned, lest readers think that the person does not dispute the allegations (like 94% of criminal defendants in the United States) or that they have said nothing on the matter. Even a denial that is patently absurd can still be of encyclopedic relevance or may be even more noteworthy because of its absurdity.

As with all unlikely perspectives, Wikipedia describing a view does not mean that Wikipedia endorses it. We describe the view of people who think that the Earth is flat, but we present that alongside the overwhelming well-sourced evidence against that view. Likewise, if we spend several sentences explaining all of the reliable sources that say X is a white nationalist, a subsequent "X rejects the label of a white nationalist" will not prevent readers from reaching a reasonable conclusion. A short denial takes up a tiny amount of article space (usually just a few words) and omitting those words could suggest to some readers that the subject hasn't denied it, while other readers who know about the denial could infer that it is being omitted here because Wikipedia judges X to be dishonest about the denial. In no way does including a short denial "legitimize" a fringe view.

If our article text excludes a verified denial, our readers might conclude that the allegation is true. BLP policy says that, "A living person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until convicted by a court of law", and one of the purposes of WP:DENIALS is to affirm this principle which also applies to other allegations or characterizations of a living person.

The most problematic counterargument

The following argument is sometimes made, but it presents the greatest difficulties:

If a reliable source has checked the denial and confirmed its basis in fact or discussed its credibility, we can certainly say so, but if the only statement is that "X denies the accusations" then we don't need to include it because, well, he would, wouldn't he?

Our requirement that material in an article be reliably sourced does not mean we need to establish the validity of a denial, only that the subject made it. Any characterization of its credibility found in reliable sources would of course also normally be included, but in any case this is not a reason to exclude the denial. The BLP policy section at DENIALS states that such denials should be included, and that should be done while (not "if there is a way of") always giving due weight and balance.

As noted earlier, denials are typically published in reliable secondary sources (RS). Even if every RS in the world reports a bare denial without elaborating upon it, then this counterargument might be cited to contend that we don't need to include it in a BLP. This point of view overlooks the fact that it is up to reliable sources, not Wikipedia editors, what is noteworthy to include in articles on the subject. To exclude denials found in published reliable sources amounts to a form of original research where editors presume they know better than the reliable sources what should be mentioned, and often constitutes undue weight in favor of the accusations. Wikipedia's policy on neutrality also says that we should not be "excluding sources that do not conform to the editor's point of view".

A reliable source (RS) may omit an assessment of the credibility of a denial, but the denial is worth mentioning regardless. An RS might well have investigated credibility before publication of a bare denial, and found it unnecessary to discuss credibility further, even while considering the denial worth publishing. If the RS publish the denial while saying it is not credible, then we can describe both, or only the former, but omitting both would not conform with the policy at WP:DENIALS.

The historical episode from 1963

The title of this essay refers to a historical episode from 1963, which involved a figure in the Profumo affair named Mandy Rice-Davies. She is often quoted as saying that Lord Astor (a married man) would obviously deny having had an affair with her. In the context of Lord Astor, and in a court case, this may have been obvious to Ms. Rice-Davies based partly upon her firsthand observations of Astor's character, not just because of her general views on human nature. Either way, as already described here, it is not the case that all people will deny all accusations.

There is no evidence Rice-Davies disapproved of Astor's denial being published anywhere. On the contrary, her famous response suggests that she expected to hear a denial from him and would have been surprised not to.

In this present debate, it is often argued that a denial from an accused person may be so self-serving as to be useless. Even if that is sometimes the case, the omission of such denial would be worse than useless, because the omission may create the perception that no denial has been issued, and that the person is therefore guilty.

Placement of a denial in the lead

In a biography of a living person, accusations are often discussed in the article body that are not significant enough to be in the lead. However, when editors appropriately decide that an accusation is significant enough to go into the lead, then questions arise about whether the denial should go in the lead as well, or whether it would be sufficient to mention the denial in the article body only.

For our purposes now, let us simplify this discussion by supposing that the denial is uncomplicated, and therefore could be very briefly put into the lead, for example by saying merely: "which she denied". Such brevity could help to avoid undue weight, while the lead's description of an accusation can indicate whether the accusation is widely believed (thus avoiding any false balance). Let us also suppose that there has not been any criminal conviction regarding the accusation, which would raise issues unique to convictions. So the denial is presumably uncomplicated, and there has been no conviction.

In this type of situation, it is sometimes asserted that WP:DENIALS says nothing about whether a denial ever has to go into the lead of a BLP. Such an assertion is in tension with that part of WP:BLP, which indicates a denial is an important part of a BLP if it exists, and with MOS:Lead:

The lead is the first thing most people read upon arriving at an article, and may be the only portion of the article that they read....The lead should stand on its own as a concise overview of the article's topic....The lead section should briefly summarize the most important points covered in an article, in such a way that it can stand on its own as a concise version of the article.

This guideline about the lead, combined with WP:DENIALS, may lead Wikipedia editors to think that briefly mentioning a denial in the lead (where the accusation is already described) should happen per Wikipedia rules, at least when the denial is uncomplicated, and there has been no conviction. The present essay takes no position about whether such an editor would be correct, or about whether these rules should be changed in any way; the goal here is to be descriptive rather than prescriptive.

See also

• Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#Denial (WP:DENIALS)
• Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons (WP:BLP): "Biographies of living persons ('BLPs') must be written conservatively and with regard for the subject's privacy. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a tabloid: it is not Wikipedia's job to be sensationalist, or to be the primary vehicle for the spread of titillating claims about people's lives; the possibility of harm to living subjects must always be considered when exercising editorial judgment."
• Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#People accused of crime (WP:BLPCRIME): "A living person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until convicted by a court of law. Accusations, investigations and arrests do not amount to a conviction. For individuals who are not public figures; that is, individuals not covered by § Public figures, editors must seriously consider not including material—in any article—that suggests the person has committed, or is accused of having committed, a crime, unless a conviction has been secured."
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch#Contentious labels (WP:LABEL): "Value-laden labels – such as calling an organization a cult, an individual a racist, sexist, terrorist, or freedom fighter, or a sexual practice a perversion – may express contentious opinion and are best avoided unless widely used by reliable sources to describe the subject, in which case use in-text attribution."
• Right of reply, discussing the right to defend oneself against public criticism in the same venue where it was published.
• User:JzG/Mandy Rice-Davies applies