Daily Mail In February 2017, after a formal community discussion, editors on the
English Wikipedia banned the use of the
Daily Mail as a source in most cases. and it can no longer be used as proof of
notability. The
Daily Mail thus became the first deprecated source. A February 2017 editorial in
The Times on the decision said: "Newspapers make errors and have the responsibility to correct them. Wikipedia editors' fastidiousness, however, appears to reflect less a concern for accuracy than dislike of the
Daily Mails opinions."
Slate writer Will Oremus said the decision "should encourage more careful sourcing across Wikipedia while doubling as a richly deserved rebuke to a publication that represents some of the worst forces in online news." In July 2020, the Wikipedia community announced that Fox News would no longer be considered "generally reliable" in its reporting of science and politics, and that it "should be used with caution to verify contentious claims" about those topics. The decision was made because Fox News downplayed the
COVID-19 pandemic, because of allegations that it spread
misinformation about climate change, and because it reported on the false concept of "
no-go zones" for non-Muslims in British cities. The decision did not affect Fox News's reliability on other topics. In 2022, the Wikipedia community announced that Fox News would be considered "marginally reliable" in its reporting on science and politics. This meant that it cannot be used as a source for "exceptional claims" and that its reliability would be decided on a case-by-case basis for other scientific and political claims. The decision applies only to articles on Fox News's website and articles about topics that are scientific or political. The CNET incident resulted in editors expressing concern about the reliability of Red Ventures–owned websites, such as
Bankrate and CreditCards.com, which also published AI-generated content around the same time. The ADL condemned the downgrade, alleging it was part of a "campaign to delegitimize" the organization. The
Wikimedia Foundation said in response, "The Foundation has not, and does not, intervene in decisions made by the community about the classification of a source".
James Loeffler, a professor of modern Jewish history at
Johns Hopkins University, said the English Wikipedia's decision was a "significant hit" to the ADL's credibility.
Dov Waxman, professor of Israel Studies at the
University of California, Los Angeles, said that if "Wikipedia and other sources and the journalists start ignoring the ADL's data, it becomes a real issue for Jewish Americans who are understandably concerned about the rise of antisemitism". Mira Sucharov, a professor of political science at
Carleton University, said the decision was "a sign that the Jewish community needs better institutions". == Impact ==