Friday, April 3, 2015

The Wikinews Article that Wasn't: Wikinews Rejects Article about the Bosnian Pyramids: "Newsworthiness Not Established"

On March 28, 2015, I submitted an article to Wikinews detailing Dr. Paul LaViolette's public statements on the Bosnian Pyramid Complex. 

On March 29, 2015, the article was rejected on several grounds, the primary one being lack of newsworthiness. (Please see the Wikinews editor's comments-in-full after the article below.)

 *  *  *

Dr. Paul LaViolette (right) visits Ravne Tunnel
Labyrinth
with Dr. Semir Osmanagich (left) and
Valery Uvarov (center),
September 2, 2014

American Scientist Dr. Paul LaViolette: The Bosnian Pyramid Complex Is "One of the Most Important Archaeological Excavations Going on at this Time on Our Planet" 


Dr. Paul LaViolette, author of seven books in physics, astronomy, climatology, systems theory, and ancient technology, has claimed in an article published in a recent issue of Nexus Magazine that the Bosnian Pyramid Complex is "one of the most important archaeological excavations going on at this time on our planet." 

Dr. LaViolette's controversial claim is an almost word-for-word restatement of his opinion offered five months earlier at a little-publicized press conference in Sarajevo that the Bosnian Pyramid Complex is "probably the most important archaeological discovery in the world."

Dr. Paul LaViolette speaking at ICBP 2014
in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, September 6, 2014
Dr. LaViolette joins a growing number of independent researchers who, after visiting the archaeological sites in and near Visoko, Bosnia-Herzegovina, have publicly defied the more conservative view of mainstream academic archaeologists that ancient pyramids cannot exist in Europe. 

In his Nexus Magazine article, "New Findings at the Bosnian Pyramids Complex" (Feb-March), Dr. LaViolette writes: "Much misleading information has been posted on the Internet and printed in mainstream archaeological periodicals, claiming that the Bosnian pyramids are really just natural geological formations. Having now gone to
 Visoko . . . I can say emphatically
 that there is definitely
 something fantastic being
 excavated there and that everyone who has any doubts should take the trip and see for themselves."

Dr. LaViolette's visit to Bosnia coincided with the Fifth International Scientific Conference on the Bosnian Pyramids, also known as Hidden History Conference ICBP 2014, in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, held between August 31 and September 6, 2014. Although Dr. LaViolette was added to the speakers' list at the last minute, he was able to give a lengthy presentation on September 6 about how cosmic events may have influenced both the building and the burial of the pyramid complex.

Additional popular researchers voicing their support for the Bosnian Pyramids Project at the conference were South African stone circles researcher Michael Tellinger, Austrian ancient artifacts curator Klaus Dona, and Russian pyramids researcher Valery Uvarov.
Dr. Paul LaViolette (left), Klaus Dona (center),
and Michael Tellinger, at the entrance to Ravne
Tunnel Labyrinth, September 2, 2014

Dr. LaViolette visited Ravne Tunnel Labyrinth, a prehistoric tunnel system that winds beneath the Bosnian Pyramid Complex on September 2, 2014, and he visited the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun on September 3, 2014.  


Dr. Paul LaViolette on the Bosnian Pyramid
of the Sun, September 3, 2014

Dr. Paul LaViolette and other visitors listen to
Dr. Semir Osmanagic give a talk on the Bosnian
Pyramid of the Sun, September 3, 2014

As noted in a March 24, 2015 article in the Sarajevo Times, Dr. LaViolette claims that it was his visit to Ravne Tunnel Labyrinth that convinced him that an Ice Age civilization "built this underground complex as a protection from cosmic radiation which was bombarding the planet at the time." 

Dr. LaViolette concludes his Nexus Magazine article with the statement that the Bosnian Pyramid Complex "shatters all concepts of human history. You can understand why the conventional archaeological community has frowned on this excavation project: the findings throw all of its carefully assembled theories out the window." 

Dr. LaViolette's written statement in Nexus Magazine again echoes an oral statement he made at the Sarajevo press conference, that the Bosnian Pyramid Complex "completely pushes back the period of human civilization building large structures. . . . It really is going to completely rewrite the textbooks when finally the established scientific community accepts what is going on here." 

 *  *  *

Below are the comments on the Draft Wikinews article by Wikinews reviewer Pi Zero.

Symbol question.svg Revision 3358434 of this article has been reviewed by Pi zero (talk · contribs) and found not ready at 00:02, 29 March 2015 (UTC).
Comments by reviewer:
  • A news article is built around a focal event which must be newsworthy. Newsworthiness (as you see at the link) consists mainly of the focus being specific, relevant, and fresh; see the link, WN:Newsworthiness. But here, the focal event doesn't appear to be specific in the sense of the page, either that or not fresh; it's something the individual has been saying for some time. And no reason is given why the event is relevant to a large number of people.
  • Wikinews policy forbids use of pay-to-read sources.
  • We don't use footnotes; the writer has been told this before. See WN:WRITE, or any of our articles published in the past few years. Also, when you create an article with any of our article-creation forms, it provides the skeleton of a couple of source citations.
  • News is objective. Wikinews is not a soapbox for arguing the legitimacy of fringe science. Not only does Wikinews neutrality forbid us from taking a position on controversial claims, but if there were a solid news story here, establishing its newsworthiness in the lede would not depend at all on the legitimacy of the fringe science involved.



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