Talk:'Piano Man' speaks and is identified, returns home to Germany

Is it really necessary to describe this man's sexuality????

I agree: the British PCC guidelines say: ii) Details of an individual's race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story. Taking it out ClareWhite 08:50, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

But who follows the guidelines? It's because he's gay. If he were heterosexual it wouldn't be there. You always hear of Muslim terrorists and sometimes Tamil terrorists (Tamil tigers) but never Jewish or Christian terrorists even when they are doing it in the name of their religion (regardless how misguided such sentiment may be). In many Western countries (such as here in NZ) you'll here of Asian criminals, regardless whether or not their ethnicity had anything to do with their crime but white (or Pakeha) criminals? No way... Okay, obviously we wikinews hopefully aspire to follow the guidelines but I wonder, how often do we follow the guidelines?60.234.141.76 17:29, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm "on the fence" on this one. It isn't particularly relevant, but seems OK as a general description to me. What I would avoid is mentioning sexuality as if to imply that it is the cause of evil behaviour, like "Homosexual murders family of 5". Avoiding mentioning any characteristics of an individual in general seems a bit overly-PC and makes for some rather bland reporting, in my humble opinion. For example, his piano playing could also be left out, on the grounds that it might imply that "artistic types" are inherently mentally unbalanced. If we did that, however, this article would be so boring nobody would care to read it. StuRat 17:39, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

Piano playing

There seems to me to be one clear contradiction here. It's now been established pretty much that this the Piano Man is a German who has been sent home. However the claim by the Daily Mirror that he couldn't play the piano at all seems at odds to the other reports. There is no way the hospital staff could have believed he played the piano well if he could only tap at one key so either they've been lying or the Daily Mirror claim is BS. Perhaps he wasn't really as good as playing as some reports have suggested but the Daily Mirror indication his ability is a clear and complete contradiction of other reports!60.234.141.76 17:30, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

I agree. The most reliable reports seem to indicate he plays fairly well, but not at the professional concert pianist level. A non-musician could easily mistake those two levels, but not a person who can only play one key. I'm guessing that particular witness saw him when he was just hitting one key at a time, possible checking the pitch of the piano ? StuRat 17:44, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

Is info from a tabloid neccecary?

The middle two paragraphs could be trash for all we know.