Talk:Billy Long

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Is this really notable?

During a September 2018 House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing on alleged anti-conservative bias on social media, far-right internet personality Laura Loomer interrupted the meeting. Long began a mock auction chant pretending he was selling Loomer's mobile phone until she was escorted out. The incident generated considerable laughter and applause from the audience.

He got a laugh during a meeting?

Long also participated in the World Poker Tour, participating in professional sanctioned games including the Southern Poker Championship at the Beau Rivage and the Bellagio Cup.[citation needed]

Citation needed, indeed. If you look him up in Hendon Mob database, there is one Bill Long from Springfield, Missouri, who has $6000 total winnings. Either that's his entry or he has no entry and no earnings.

Suggest these 2 paragraphs should be removed.--Petzl (talk) 11:37, 5 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Agree that the fact that he got a laugh in a hearing is trivial and should be removed (even though it does sound kind of funny). Additionally, the sentence about him retweeting (not even tweeting) a minor comment about Brett Kavanaugh seems exceptionally trivial. (He was a Congressman for 12 years - was that the only time he retweeted about anything?). Unless this retweet had some special importance in Kavanaugh's hearing then please take it out, and/or add other information of significant things he did in his 12 years in Congress. NameNotUsed20 (talk) 18:41, 22 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Worst Person in the World

Mentioning Long's appearance in the Worst Person in the World Segment on the little-watched TV show Countdown is not worthy of a mention in the career section. That such a thing is mentioned is pretty pathetic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.141.155.6 (talk) 22:29, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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Notable awards

A user is edit warring to include a large number of totally non notable awards Professional Auctioneers’ Association Hall of Fame, Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence, National Service Lifetime Leadership Award from Voices for National Service etc. etc Theroadislong (talk) 16:23, 12 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Educational information

Most US congressmen's Wikipedia pages don't contain their secondary school or certificates under the education parameter. For this reason, it seemed appropriate to remove it. Dmh17 (talk) 06:35, 5 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's facts, and then there's facts

I made this edit which was reverted (by User:Thenightaway), and so here we are. The edit was to move the phrase "Compared to previous IRS Commissioners, Long lacks experience in the tax industry" down from the lede into the body, and hedge it with "According to CBS News" so its not in our own voice. The edit summary for the revert was "It is a fact".

I suppose. But, "it is a fact", even if proven, isn't the end of the story. There's a lot you can do with facts to throw shade, put ideas in readers' heads, and lead the reader. "Smith is the only Secretary of Energy with a sibling who has been convicted of sex with pigs." "Smith is the only Secretary of Energy to have been expelled from middle school". "Smith has never been declared legally sane by any board-certified psychiatrist". All these may be facts. Do they belong in a BLP? No they don't.

The tax-experience fact, tho, if true, is germane to understanding the entity Billy Long. Is it true? Well, let's see, the article has "Long has recently served as a tax adviser to businesses seeking to employ a controversial tax credit, but, unlike prior IRS commissioners, his background is largely outside of the tax industry, experts noted". "Experts noted", did they? Which ones? CBS doesn't say. It's pretty easy for a writer to wave her hand and claim to just be quoting some vague cloud of unnamed experts. The one direct quote they give, directly next, is "This guy is an auctioneer — that's his expertise. This is an incredibly unserious choice", but that is from Lindsay Owens, executive director of a progressive economic think tank, who is surely biased against Owens generally.

"Long has recently served as a tax adviser to businesses seeking to employ a controversial tax credit". That's being in the tax industry, I suppose, granted short and peripheral, but more than I have. Has CBS indeed checked that there wasn't some IRS head in 1953 who came directly from being a Vice Admiral or something (not all that uncommon actually -- they're looking for executive ability). I don't feel confident enough of that to state it in a BLP. And it's not like Long hasn't spend time thinking and speaking about tax policy. We could be like "Of all previous IRS Commissioners, Long has the longest service in the United States Congress". So why are we throwing shade instead of pointing that out.

I think the real objection here is more toward what Long is being asked to do -- help burn the American tax system to the ground, I gather -- than his qualifications to do it. I mean, I sure don't agree with what he's being asked to do, and I think the guy is a ______ and I hope he steps on a Lego -- or worse. I bet most of you all do to. All the more reason to be especially watchful to be scrupulously neutral and fair-minded when dealing with BLPs like this. Herostratus (talk) 20:06, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Corruption allegations

I don't know whether this is a RS or not: https://www.levernews.com/trump-irs-pick-was-just-enriched-by-tax-schemers/ Llajwa (talk) 00:03, 19 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not for a WP:BLP I don't think. One of the headlines just below is "Zuckerberg Admits Enshittification Is The Point" which he didn't actually admit any such thing or use that term, I wouldn't think. So I can see them kind of spinning facts.

HowEVER, there are plenty of reliable sources saying the same thing: MSN and USA today and also The New Republic which is liberal but maybe OK for facts, plus Politco and others I am sure. So it looks like an established fact good enough for our purposes, and IMO definitely belongs in the article, so long as we just report the facts. Thanks for finding that. Herostratus (talk) 02:31, 25 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There are some more links that may be relevant and acceptable here in this new notice from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who sits on the Senate's Finance Committee:

https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-blasts-lax-fbi-background-check-of-irs-nominee-billy-long-sounds-alarm-over-court-documents-implicating-long-in-major-bribery-conspiracy NME Frigate (talk) 18:10, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]