 | This is anessay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not beenthoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: If a page appears to contain excessively negative or hostile coverage of its subject, though it may be a violation of Wikipedia's guidelines onneutral point of view anddue weight, consider the possibility that the subject itself may be inherently hostile, and portraying it as such is the only way Wikipedia can remain unbiased. |
Wikipedia operates on a principle that articles should be written from aneutral point of view. In practice, this means givingdue weight to all mainstream opinions on a topic, while avoiding giving preference to a particular point of view - or in other words, the article giving an opinion presented as a fact should be avoided. Even in articles about widely condemned events, people, and things, the article will not go out of its way to condemn the subject itself, instead stating the most widely held opinions on it - Wikipedia is a collection of summaries of secondary sources. Thus, even on articles which you as a reader have an opinion on you believe to be inherent and obvious, Wikipedia isnot the place for expressing such opinions, and articles that take stances on things that are a matter of opinion are frowned upon, in addition to the use of Wikipedia topush a certain agenda.
In spite of these policies designed to keep Wikipediaencyclopedic, you may find some articles to either be outwardly opinionated or only present views on a certain side of a subject, whether mainstream or fringe. These articles should generally be reworked to give due weight to all mainstream opinions, or, in extreme cases,deleted. However, some articles that appear at first glance to be biased in the latter sense, (that is, they only seem to represent one side of the story) are often not opinionated at all, but are accurately representing all available sources on the subject. In this case, the fact that the subject is portrayed in such an ostensibly biased way isnot Wikipedia's fault - we can't help thatsome governments' relations are stiflingly negative, we can't help thatsome TV shows are reviewed overwhelmingly positively, and we can't help thatsome towns are just terrible at mining.