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But his extremism doesn't lie far beneath the surface. When Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, announced in 2006 that he would take his oath of office on the Koran rather than the Bible, Prager threw a conniption, ginning up a wholly imaginary standard in which the Bible is the only suitable book upon which to take the oath
Robin Marty (November 28, 2006). "Dennis Prager - Hateful and Wrong – Updated". Minnesota Monitor. Archived from the original on January 9, 2007. Retrieved December 4, 2006. Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
editorials like the one appearing in TownHall.com erred in maintaining that Ellison would be sworn into Congress by taking an oath with his hand upon the Quran. Actually, no Bibles or other religious texts are used during the swearing-in ceremony for the House of Representatives — incoming House members simply stand in front of the speaker’s podium en masse, raise their right hands, and recite an oath in which they swear to uphold the Constitution. Bibles are generally either optionally carried by some new House members during the ceremony or make an appearance only when the newly-sworn Congressmen pose with them during a post-swearing-in photo opportunity with the Speaker of the House
Jefferson's Quran made its first appearance in the Capitol in 2007, when Keith Ellison of Minnesota became the first-ever Muslim member of Congress and chose to use the archival Quran to take his oath. Ellison's swearing-in ceremony caused serious controversy among many on the Christian Right, who, despite the Constitution's clear language on the matter, argued that the Bible was the only text that could be used to swear the oath of office. The conservative columnist Dennis Prager wrote that Ellison's decision to use anything other than the Bible would "do more damage to the unity of America ... than the terrorists of 9/11."
Noteduck, your newly added climate change material is problematic on several grounds. First, the NR source doesn't say Prager rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. The NR article is talking about political actions related to climate change. How to respond to climate change is not specifically rejecting the scientific consensus (though it may be based on a rejection of that consensus). Thus the statement that Prager rejects the consensus is WP:OR. My first critique ignores the elephant in the room, the NR article was authored by Prager. That means it's a primary, not a secondary party assessment of his position. The other source is an interview with Prager and again that makes it a primary vs secondary source. Per WP:PRIMARY any interpretation of these primary sources (which is basically the entire paragraph in question) must come from a secondary source. Springee (talk) 13:56, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
Right. Such statements would need reliable secondary sources. Yes, it's obviously true that Prager rejects the scientific consensus, but as long as nobody relevant comments on it, Wikipedia should not mention his anti-science stance. Wikipedia editors cannot just browse what somebody says, pick snippets that seem relevant to them, and add them to articles. See WP:PRIMARY.
New sentence re being criticized by media for misrepresenting[edit]
This is the new Wikipedia article text referring to Mr Prager:
"He was subsequently criticized in the media for misrepresenting the seriousness of the pandemic.[44]"
Noteduckinserted it, Wesley Craigremoved it, Noteduck re-inserted it, I removed it, HouseBlasterre-inserted it.
The cited article is New York Times 01 April 2020.
My edit summary was: The sentence's contention isn't backed up by the cited source, the only thing it says re Mr Prager is that he asked "How many people have died this year in the United States from snake bites?"
Any other opinions?
Peter Gulutzan (talk) 16:32, 26 February 2021 (UTC)
In the context of the full NYTimes ref, it seems ok, though we might want to work on the wording. Are there additional refs we could use to help? --Hipal (talk) 17:40, 26 February 2021 (UTC)
Appears rather short relative to article size, not seeing an adequate summary of article content here, is there any good reason for this? Acousmana (talk) 10:36, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
I noticed that, as with the PragerU page, some editors were highly averse to accepting any material that could be seen as unflattering Noteduck (talk) 10:41, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
more eyes needed then, RFC? Acousmana (talk) 10:43, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
Why not just purpose what should be added? Springee (talk) 12:24, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
time consuming, more productive establishing whether not a consensus for lead expansion exists, if it does, wording can be discussed. Acousmana (talk) 12:58, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
It is short, but not too short. Has the needed basics: conservative talk show host; began work as Refusenik explicator; runs PragerU. His career/life does not seem to include major events of overriding importance needed in the lead. I would not object to addition of some details, but the article does not need a "too short" tag on top. Compare with analogues: Michael Medved, Larry Elder and Mike Gallagher (political commentator). DonFB (talk) 08:10, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
On 17 December 2014, DougHill added a quote of Mr Prager in an interview by TheBlaze. Today this was
removed by Aquillion. I see that
recently
Aquillion has quickly removed more than one reference to TheBlaze. I support restoration because the effect is to remove Mr Prager's opinion from his article. What do others think? Peter Gulutzan (talk) 17:31, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
Can't we find a higher-quality source quoting him? That quote doesn't seem to have attracted much attention at all among reliable sources, so I'm not understanding the desire to highlight it in the lead. If it's just about having some quote from him, surely there are ones in better sources. --Aquillion (talk) 17:43, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
It's poor and promotional source. I'm for leaving it out. --Hipal (talk) 20:17, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
I think it could be summarized and accepted as ABOUTSELF. Care to avoid self promotion should be taken but I don't see that sourcing to The Blaze should automatically exclude it in this case. To Aquillion's concern, if a better source can be found we should replace but I think saying something about Prager's motives, even if self declared is better than nothing. That doesn't mean the previous content was the best way to do this. Springee (talk) 15:43, 4 April 2021 (UTC)
If we're think Prager's motives deserve mention, we should use an independent source. There's no other way to get around ABOUTSELF#1 given what Prager does. --Hipal (talk) 16:19, 4 April 2021 (UTC)
