Bbc Have Replied To My Complaint

[Bedsprings]

I've been keeping Tim busy too - I think we should do this as much as possible:

-----Original Message-----

From: xxx

Sent: 30 November 2005 18:05

To: NewsOnline Complaints

The OECD has just published a report saying UK house prices are up to

40* overvalued (and Irish & Spanish prices). It was a headline in the

FT today yet not mentioned at all on your website. All there was, was

some comments from a few days ago from a load of Estate Agents, who do

have a bit of a vested interest in disguising this sort of news.

Innocent Buyers are continuing to believe the guff put out on your

website - they should at least have the views of a rather more impartial

observer like the OECD to consider, as well, when making a decision of

whether to buy or not at the moment. I do think that the number of

cheap-to-make property programmes on the Beeb, means that you are not

giving a balanced picture. You have a vested interest in hiding what is

actually the case. Shame on you!

{EndofComments:}

-----Original Message-----

From: NewsOnline [mailto:newsonline@bbc.co.uk]

Sent: 23 December 2005 12:04

Dear xxx

Many thanks for your e-mail and apologies for the delay in getting back

to you, but it's been a very busy month.

Well, the OECD report was released on a very busy news day (and the day

before the report of the Turner Commission on Pensions), and we just did

not have the people to write it, and to be honest it didn't really say

anything new.

We have reported numerous times various assessments that the housing

market is overvalued - we were actually one of the first to do so, when

several years ago we gave big coverage to a Capital Economics assessment

that suggested that house prices were overvalued by some 30% (a number

that the company has revised downwards since).

Whenever we report that somebody says or predicts that house prices are

going up, we are criticised for talking up the market. Whenever we

report that somebody says or predicts that the housing market is

cooling, we're accused of trying to crash the market.

The debate about the state of the property market is very vigorous, and

the issues raised are highly contentious.

I appreciate that, but believe that we give a balanced view of all sides

in the debate.

We try to cover it comprehensively, especially given the great interest

of our readers in the market, but given our slim resources we also have

to make judgements as to what we do and don't cover.

On the day we decided to focus on other aspects of the OECD report.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4481306.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4480882.stm

Regards,

Tim Weber

Business Editor

BBC News Interactive www.bbc.co.uk/business

-----Original Message-----

From: xxx

Sent: 23 December 2005 14:12

To: NewsOnline Complaints

Thanks for this comprehensive reply.

I'm afraid that I don't agree that the BBC gives a balanced coverage of the current state of the housing market - I know that things are very peculiar around it at the moment, with conflicting figures being produced, but I do feel that, far too often, you report conjecture/guesses by estate agents, and banks, as if it is fact. And as if it is good news - if the price of anything else goes up, you don't report this as being a good thing!

Sentiment is very important, but these are sectors with a vested interest in the market being seen to be doing well. In my experience, and that of many others, it is not doing well - however there are still (foolish) people buying houses on interest-only loans which represent huge multiples of their salary, because they believe house prices will do nothing but continue to go up. Part of the reason they believe this is because of the way that any 'news' by those with vested interests is presented. If interest rates go up, and sometimes not even ten, if they are very over-stretched, they could be surprised at how little they will actually sell their house for, and negative equity will be a problem again.

The only people who actually benefit from house prices rising are those who will never want to move to a bigger place, and estate agents & banks. For the rest of us, it just makes it more difficult, if not impossible to think of moving to somewhere that suits changed circumstances, because the price of that has risen even more.

I do own up to a vested interest in prices falling, because I sold my house in March last year and haven't found anywhere that I want to buy yet. Mostly it's because I just don't like the houses and would never want to buy them, but also it's because I can't even think of buying them and changing them because they are too expensive. So I'm living in a rented house, for which I am paying far less in rent that it would cost to buy, and watching prices fall - because, in Surrey they are falling (see the ODPM most recent stats) , and no-one is buying the houses that are for sale. The position is slightly different in other areas of the country I know.

Edited January 6, 2006 by Bedsprings

[underpressuretobuy]

From: NewsOnline [mailto:newsonline@bbc.co.uk]

Many thanks for your e-mail and apologies for the delay in getting back

to you, but it's been a very busy month.

Well, the OECD report was released on a very busy news day (and the day

before the report of the Turner Commission on Pensions), and we just did

not have the people to write it, and to be honest it didn't really say

anything new.

I'm sorry but I don't believe a word of this - oh, we would have liked to have printed a bearish view of the property market but we were all too busy.

If anything what they mean is - The OECD didn't send their report on house prices in a nice, easy to cut and paste press releases like the mortgage lenders do which means the BBC would have had to have done some actual work to produce a news article on this.

Too busy! I'm sorry but the BBC don't produce a lot of news items and many of the ones they do produce are cut and paste press releases and many of the others are not new at all.

I'll never forget their report on the possibility of a mega-tsunami from La Palma in the Canaries weeks after Horizon had devoted an entire programme to the same subject - I thought to myself then "Ooh it seems like nothing at all happened anywhere in the world today, that must be why this is suddenly news"

:angry:

[Bubble Pop Electric]

Don't journalists have to study English?

Well, starting a paragraph with "Well" is really quite shockingly poor. Especially from the business editor of the BBC. Just proves what education is worth these days.

[No6]

I've been keeping Tim busy too - I think we should do this as much as possible:

-----Original Message-----

From: xxx

Sent: 30 November 2005 18:05

To: NewsOnline Complaints

The OECD has just published a report saying UK house prices are up to

40* overvalued (and Irish & Spanish prices). It was a headline in the

FT today yet not mentioned at all on your website. All there was, was

some comments from a few days ago from a load of Estate Agents, who do

have a bit of a vested interest in disguising this sort of news.

Innocent Buyers are continuing to believe the guff put out on your

website - they should at least have the views of a rather more impartial

observer like the OECD to consider, as well, when making a decision of

whether to buy or not at the moment. I do think that the number of

cheap-to-make property programmes on the Beeb, means that you are not

giving a balanced picture. You have a vested interest in hiding what is

actually the case. Shame on you!

{EndofComments:}

-----Original Message-----

From: NewsOnline [mailto:newsonline@bbc.co.uk]

Sent: 23 December 2005 12:04

Dear xxx

Many thanks for your e-mail and apologies for the delay in getting back

to you, but it's been a very busy month.

Well, the OECD report was released on a very busy news day (and the day

before the report of the Turner Commission on Pensions), and we just did

not have the people to write it, and to be honest it didn't really say

anything new.

We have reported numerous times various assessments that the housing

market is overvalued - we were actually one of the first to do so, when

several years ago we gave big coverage to a Capital Economics assessment

that suggested that house prices were overvalued by some 30% (a number

that the company has revised downwards since).

Whenever we report that somebody says or predicts that house prices are

going up, we are criticised for talking up the market. Whenever we

report that somebody says or predicts that the housing market is

cooling, we're accused of trying to crash the market.

The debate about the state of the property market is very vigorous, and

the issues raised are highly contentious.

I appreciate that, but believe that we give a balanced view of all sides

in the debate.

We try to cover it comprehensively, especially given the great interest

of our readers in the market, but given our slim resources we also have

to make judgements as to what we do and don't cover.

On the day we decided to focus on other aspects of the OECD report.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4481306.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4480882.stm

Regards,

Tim Weber

Business Editor

BBC News Interactive www.bbc.co.uk/business

This really is rubbish. A balanced view of all sides?

"Well, the OECD report was released on a very busy news day (and the day

before the report of the Turner Commission on Pensions), and we just did

not have the people to write it, and to be honest it didn't really say

anything new."

Nothing new? Didn't have the people to write it, so instead they lift a press report from a VI and call it news?

"The debate about the state of the property market is very vigorous, and

the issues raised are highly contentious.

I appreciate that, but believe that we give a balanced view of all sides

in the debate."

Well, how balanced is the BBC's reporting on the difficulties facing FTB's? While I've seen them publish many articles giving advice on how they can enter the market (usually written by a third party property "expert"), which usually involve the usual save a bigger deposit, get help from parents, get a keyworker loan, lower your sights, move to a cheaper area, etc, I've never seen them say wait and see if prices fall 30-40% in line with what usually happens after a bubble, when the cycle turns.

"We try to cover it comprehensively, especially given the great interest

of our readers in the market, but given our slim resources we also have

to make judgements as to what we do and don't cover."

Slim resources? The BBC rakes in billions by force of law if necessary. Obviously too busy spending that money on daytime improve your property to make a mint type programmes, to give the news department enough cash to employ journos who know what balance means.

I do sometimes wonder as well if the people working for the Beeb who write these articles or who have editorial control are home owners and therefore realise where their own VI lies? Just occasionally, you get an article that is bearish on the Housing market, that might use the word bubble for instance. Are these written by a frustrated, priced out FTB journo, just starting out at the beeb, who no doubt gets it on the website on a day when his/her's home owning editor is on holiday?

[Jason]

Dear xxx

Many thanks for your e-mail and apologies for the delay in getting back

to you, but it's been a very busy month.

Well, the OECD report was released on a very busy news day (and the day

before the report of the Turner Commission on Pensions), and we just did

not have the people to write it, and to be honest it didn't really say

anything new.

We have reported numerous times various assessments that the housing

market is overvalued - we were actually one of the first to do so, when

several years ago we gave big coverage to a Capital Economics assessment

that suggested that house prices were overvalued by some 30% (a number

that the company has revised downwards since).

Whenever we report that somebody says or predicts that house prices are

going up, we are criticised for talking up the market. Whenever we

report that somebody says or predicts that the housing market is

cooling, we're accused of trying to crash the market.

The debate about the state of the property market is very vigorous, and

the issues raised are highly contentious.

I appreciate that, but believe that we give a balanced view of all sides

in the debate.

We try to cover it comprehensively, especially given the great interest

of our readers in the market, but given our slim resources we also have

to make judgements as to what we do and don't cover.

On the day we decided to focus on other aspects of the OECD report.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4481306.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4480882.stm

Regards,

Tim Weber

Business Editor

BBC News Interactive www.bbc.co.uk/business

I had the exact same reply - word for word! At least our Timmy can copy and paste!

[apom]

I have recieved a reply to the complaint I made about the BBC News article predicting house prices would rise in 2006 based on predictions by the Halifax

Here is my complaint:

And here is the response:

Does everyone agree with the BBC's assessment that "On balance the views of the country's largest mortgage lender are of more importance than that of a group of City economists".

Personally this sounds like an admission that they prefer the view of a vested interest (a mortgage lender) to somehow who might look at property prices within the bigger picture of the UK economy (City Economists).

I complained to the BBC about your complaint..

This was the reply to my phone rant..

Wasn't expecting one actually.. it was a rant..

"Thank you for your e-mail.

I appreciate that you feel that the BBC somehow admitted to bias towards

mortgage advisors to the detriment of city economists. I can assure you that no

such admission was made. Indeed, from reading the thread you posted it is clear

that readers have implied this admission. There was no express admission

anywhere on the thread provided.

I would further like to inform you that part of our role as an impartial

observer is to report every side of the argument. Within a democratic society

the BBC would be failing in its duty if it did not discuss these issues.

It must be remember that it is not always possible or practical to reflect all

the different opinions on a subject within individual programmes. Editors are

charged to ensure that over a reasonable period they reflect the range of

significant views, opinions and trends in their subject area. The BBC does not

seek to denigrate any view, nor to promote any view. It seeks rather to identify

all significant views, and to test them rigorously and fairly on behalf of the

audience. Among other evidence, audience research indicates widespread

confidence in the impartiality of the BBC's reporting.

We understand there is always room for debate about particular news judgements,

but the principles are pretty clear. To depart from them would open the BBC to

justified complaint, and would eventually undermine the public's trust in our

reporting as a whole. We are therefore committed to providing the forum for

debate and giving full opportunity for all viewpoints to be heard. I recognise,

however, that you may not share this view of the BBC.

Therefore, please be assured that your comments on this matter have been

registered and added to a daily log that is made available to senior editorial

staff and programme makers.

Lastly, with regards to your comments that the BBC owes you £50, please could

you elaborate on how this is? With further information regarding the nature of

this accusation I will be able to investigate the matter more fully.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us with the strength of

your concerns.

Regards

Paul Hunter

BBC Information

"

"

the letter does reflect a clear and fair approach to reporting the news.

As soon as your news programs also reflect a clear and fair approach you may be taken seriously.

This is a quote from one of your team.

“On balance the views of the country's largest mortgage lender are of

more importance than that of a group of City economists - although both

are worth reporting.”

Please, have the good grace not to try and convince me, or any other educated person that you are reporting the news fairly.

Spin is an insult to the people who trust you to report the news.

The ability to believe you are not responsible for what will happen to people who regard your broadcasts as honest is misguided.

You are a joke sir, your news programs are a joke.

that this joke will cripple people whose only mistake is to trust what you say is the point where the laughing stops.

I have been offered 29% discounts against 2004 prices for new build flats.

why is this not reported?

First time buyers make up less then 7% of buyers.

This is not reported.

With sipps gone and the major BTL mortgage lenders now not lending against new builds who is buying the new builds..?

This is not reported.

A new home is built for every 2.1 extra person in the country and at the end of the eighties there were 2.76 people for every home, four years ago there were 2.6

The housing shortage is less now then it has ever been, you know this as well as I do and yet to listen to your news broadcasts I am told by an estate agent that there is a crisis in housing supply.

This is not true as you know.

Yet it is not reported.

And the housing market has either been booming or crashing since 1987, so claiming that people have changed in the way they live or wish to live is not realistic.

You know this to.

Report the news, do not try and shape opinion.

I will expect a reply to this.

"

I am an ****.. I know this..

and they do owe me £50 lol

Please.. I would expect more abuse against me.. I was rubbish

[BuyingBear]

expect to see license detector vans pulling up outside ur house any second now

The Beeb loathe to prosecute politically astute middle-class people because they know it's simply more than an issue about money and paying your bills on time, the sticking point isn't a poxy £126.50 but the means in which it is collected and to the ends it is used.

It's much easier to trawl the council estates for easy prey, alarmingly the Citizens Advice Bureaux pointed out that failure to pay the fine is the single largest reason for the imprisonment of single mothers. One Times journo has declined paid his licence for years and has publicly called for them to 'bring it on' because he would love to have his day in court, unfortunately no such opportunity has been forthcoming, but he has his own agenda, Murdoch is hardly our saviour.

Anyway, I quite happily pay for the Beeb, I think it's the mark of a civilised state to have publicly funded satire. The very worst thing you can do is take them seriously.

[Elizabeth]

The Beeb loathe to prosecute politically astute middle-class people because they know it's simply more than an issue about money and paying your bills on time, the sticking point isn't a poxy £126.50 but the means in which it is collected and to the ends it is used.

...

Anyway, I quite happily pay for the Beeb, I think it's the mark of a civilised state to have publicly funded satire. The very worst thing you can do is take them seriously.

Ah. Penny drops. I understand. EUREKA!

Buying Bear you have enlightened my understanding of the British attitude to public sector spending... to the point where I think I must now find another job!!!