Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers Message Board

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Pastimes : Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers

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To: Janice Shell who wrote (3597)	12/7/1999 12:13:00 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (2) of 3795

Business Wire's Mr. Lokey says he's not familiar with the Uniprime case, but says the wire service carefully screens press releases before they're distributed. It's precisely this type of statement combined with the Webnode lawsuit that make me think Business will lose a lawsuit brought by UPCA investors. Had Lokey said something like "Hey, we're just a distribution service. Our clients take full responsibility for what they write. Etc." then I don't think anyone would have any (legal) argument against them. The problems they have are 1) their press releases carry no disclaimer that allows people to differentiate between a news service and a wire service, 2) Lokey keeps saying how vigilant they are in checking for fraud implying they can be trusted. So, not only is he not attempting to disclaim -- quite the contrary -- he's trying to blur the line even further. But here's the quote that will be their downfall: "We probably do as well or better a job of weeding out this stuff than The Wall Street Journal does," he says. Lokey has just raised the bar to a standard, IMO, he can't possibly prove in court. He's also given UPCA investors good reason to argue they were led to believe they could trust a Business Wire press release like they trust what they read in the Wall Street Journal. No one says the Wall Street Journal is perfect, but at least they have certain journalistic policies in effect. Can Lokey prove that Business Wire has similar policies? I very much doubt it. - Jeff P.S. Considering Lokey has complained vehemently about this thread, and considering the UPCA situation has been discussed here ad nauseum, does anyone really believe Lokey is "not familiar with the Uniprime case"?

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