Sunday, September 21, 2008

Britain's most influential academic

From the Wikipedia entry on moral imbecile Professor Stanley Fish:

Terry Eagleton, generally considered Britain's most influential academic,[7]
Britain's what?

Not even the Independent article referenced by the footnote* makes this claim, instead calling Eagleton "the man who succeeded F R Leavis as Britain's most influential academic critic" (emphasis added).

Is a claim that someone is a country's "most influential academic" even capable of meaning? Even if the Indie had made this claim, would the unevidenced assertion of the country's most avowedly partisan newspaper merit the use of the word "generally"?

Wikipedia is fast becoming a joke, following in the footsteps of Professor Eagleton.

More about Fish.



* I changed the link to go straight to the Independent piece.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Professor Stanley Fish": a made-up name, surely? Peter Cook? Monty Python? Spike Milligan?

Unknown said...

Fish has been wavering back and forth since he retired a few years ago. He does crap like this, the he turns around and writes grumpy columns demanding that teachers drop the politics and get back to teaching their classes.

Joe said...

I just went in and changed the Stanley Fish article to make it more accurate. Don't just complain about wikipedia articles; if you see something incorrect or missing, go ahead and change it.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

One critic scratches the back of another. Pox on both houses...