Could Journalists Be Sued For Talking Up Hpi

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Looking at this case:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4353822.stm

Is there not an argument that journalists and politicians who produce a continuous stream of positive spin about the housing market are liable to be sued?

Any lawyers out there? Could such a case be bought against Kirsty for example?

[Miles Shipside]

NO

[zorn]

Looking at this case:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4353822.stm

Is there not an argument that journalists and politicians who produce a continuous stream of positive spin about the housing market are liable to be sued?

Any lawyers out there? Could such a case be bought against Kirsty for example?

What law do you think they're breaking? Not some vague legal principle that you believe to exist, probably erroneously, but either a specific named Act of Parliament, or some specific named cases in common law.

[VacantPossession]

Unfortunately no, any more than the BBC and entire news media can be sued for "talking up" the Iraq invasion and the slapping down (at the time) of anyone who dared question it, or more recently the initial criticisms of bungling incompetance on the underground resulting in the death of a completely innocent person, and then lying about it afterwards.

At the time, the media towed the line and not ONE article was written, or TV piece done, to question ANY of the above, until the FACTS emerged by themselves.

Houseprices are even worse, with a consistent and deliberate VI-sympathetic policy in apparently every single newspaper, radio and TV station. What is worse here is that the press are not just failing to present the true picture but are actively spinning.

And you think we have a free press?

VP

[Vest Interest]

Didn't the Governor General of the BBC lose his job over one of his reporters questioning the veracity of the Govenment's report on Iraq? I don't remember the BBC backing the war. What am I missing?

[cgnao]

Switch off the TV and think. If you can't think, reading this forum will teach you.

[Randall Herbert]

Switch off the TV and think. If you can't think, reading this forum will teach you.

Seconded..... :-)

[Elizabeth]

It is entirely illegal legal to have half thought out and unsophisticated analysis and I would suggest that evidence points to that state of knowledge being an almost madatory job requirement in most fields of the media these day. Hence, no suit.

Edited October 20, 2005 by Elizabeth

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I wasn't really very serious when I posed the question, however, the similarities between the case of the men in the dock for tipping shares they own, and VIs talking up the market are obvious. The problem is, most people in the media or business own property.

If only our website had the kind of power to turn the market.

[Guest Bart of Darkness]

By that same principle the people you mention may wish to sue HPC forum for continuously talking down the market Would you like to be at the receiving end of being sued the same way as you wish it on others?

I don't think you could say that the forum constantly talks down the market. Don't you post on the forum Apollo? Do you constantly talk down the market? There have been plenty of bull threads over the 2 years of this site.