Talk:The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping

Legally qualifying language

An anon editor recently changed the text of the lead to both add the word "allegedly" and shove the word "claim" in as well, the latter specifically in regard to the mention of trauma. Obviously, anyone who has seen this documentary knows that no one has been convicted of any crime in regard to the claims of abuse in the doc. Therefore, I do see the value and clarity in adding the word "allegedly" to the sentence.

But rewording the mention of trauma in the sentence, to make it a "claim" of trauma, is not clarify the legal realities of their situation. It's an accusation of lying. Just being dragged from your home by people whom your parents paid to take you away has the potential to be traumatic. Nothing illegal had to happen in that program, in order for their to be a post-traumatic reaction for the participants. And there is nothing in Wikipedia policy or best practices that requires a documentary about alleged childhood abuse to prove trauma is 'real' before it can be mentioned in an article's lead.

I'm going to assume that the change was made in good faith and the person just over-edited. But since it was an anonymous editor, and pages like this one are often edited by people with conflicts of interest, as a way to try and discredit their accusers, I wanted to make sure my reasons for undoing part of that edit were very clear. If you're going to make changes of that nature to this page, or the pages of other similar documentaries, books, etc., please be cautious of WP:NPOV and WP:WEIGHT in regards to both the accusers and the accused. And consider discussing such changes in the Talk page first. CleverTitania (talk) 22:11, 18 April 2024 (UTC)