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| | This one has always struck me as unfair. Maybe they simply ''don't know'' whether it's the most recognizable arch in St. Louis. So what else are they supposed to say that wouldn't be dishonest (claiming to know something they don't) and possibly inaccurate? Besides, even if they ''did'' know whether it's the most recognizable arch — what if it's not? In that case, in order to avoid saying "one of the", they now have to determine its exact ranking, which would probably be even harder. [[User:NoriMori|NoriMori]] ([[User talk:NoriMori|talk]]) 19:01, 13 July 2021 (UTC) | | This one has always struck me as unfair. Maybe they simply ''don't know'' whether it's the most recognizable arch in St. Louis. So what else are they supposed to say that wouldn't be dishonest (claiming to know something they don't) and possibly inaccurate? Besides, even if they ''did'' know whether it's the most recognizable arch — what if it's not? In that case, in order to avoid saying "one of the", they now have to determine its exact ranking, which would probably be even harder. [[User:NoriMori|NoriMori]] ([[User talk:NoriMori|talk]]) 19:01, 13 July 2021 (UTC) |
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| − | :If they don't know the facts, they shouldn't claim to know the facts. Saying that it's "one of the" most recognisable arches is ''safer'' than the alternative, but you have to do at minimum an equal amount of research to find out whether it's actually ''true''. Let's consider the hypothetical that it's ''not'' the most recognisable arch. That would be simple to find out. But if you want to know for sure that the claim that it's "one of the" most recognisable arches is false, you'd also have to research what's considered a recognisable arch in St. Louis, which takes more effort to confirm, the opposite of what you suggest.
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| − | :The gripe I have with this kind of phrasing is that they're trying to disguise the fact that they don't know by saying something that's less likely to be questioned but is a similarly strong claim, which is a manipulative practice that should ideally have no place in reporting. If it's important that you know something, research it. If it's not, don't pretend to know it.
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| − | :As for what they ''should'' say, that's very simple. There are many things they could say that don't have this effect, or have it to a lesser degree. Things like "...and he went on to design the widely recognized Gateway Arch in St. Louis" (which is a more transparently weaker claim, and is implicitly phrased as a matter of opinion), "...almost certainly the most recognizable arch in St. Louis" (explicitly includes a disclaimer that it could be wrong), or perhaps even, "...as far as we're concerned, the most recognizable arch in St. Louis" (explicitly frames it as an opinion).
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| − | :I think the most important thing to note here is that "one of the most recognizable" is something that hinges on the opinion of what the majority of people find recognisable, whereas "widely recognized" or even "widely considered the most recognizable" hinges primarily on what the speaker classifies as "widely", which inherently comes across as less objective and is therefore more appropriate to the context. The context here doesn't really require the arch to be one of the most recognisable ones, since the topic is linked to the Gateway Arch directly rather than to its recognisability, and so it's understandable not to explicitly research this. Being a bit subjective in your supplementary descriptions is fine, so long as you don't pretend to say something objective when you're not.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.103.207|172.71.103.207]] 02:07, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
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