To: C.K. Houston who wrote (35 ) 8/1/1998 1:01:00 AM From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Wow, that's certainly a thought provoking question...companies have the same rights as individuals . My guess is the courts would be more lenient on someone who fraudulently accused a company of being totally corrupt than an individual. Again my guess is that intent would be considered in greater detail as regards someone who defamed a company rather than an individual as companies don't really have "pain and suffering" per se. In other words, I could always claim that while you may have thought you were being humorous, you hurt my feelings and embarrassed me, whereas I doubt a company could claim the same thing.right now many people and companies equate the things we say here on SI with journalism and thus want to hold us to journalistic ethics . Even though for all intents and purposes we may now have as much impact on the price of a stock as they do, it's not really our fault. Thus, sad to say, even though Mr. X may be fraudulently twisting facts for his own personal gain, I don't think the courts would much care, unless, of course, he was a broker in violation of securities law. Assuming he were not, it's really has to be a judgement call on SI whether said person was acting in good faith under their rules.
