Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

We’re not going back!

American History and Black History can not be separated.

So many bastards, so little time.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

When we show up, we win.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

Democrats are back in array!

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

You are here: Home / If You Don’t Censor Yourself, Who Will?

If You Don’t Censor Yourself, Who Will?

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I don’t think anyone’s written about the decision of Bloomberg News to spike stories critical of the Chinese government, either because they’re like news organizations in Nazi Germany and need to preserve their access to report anything, or because they need the sweet, sweet cash that comes from renting Bloomberg terminals to state-run investment houses. This video will catch you up if you haven’t been following the story.

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  2. 2.

    pharniel

    Ideally business reporting would all be investagative. You are attempting to vet a corporation or business entity for it’s actual value vs. what they report, how they conduct business, if they are hiding any obligations and/or liabilities that they are not disclosing.

    Basic due diligence requires the same set of skills – I’m pretty sure the reporters keep finding out about high level communist party members who are up to their eyeballs in corruption – not directly mind, but first cousins, brothers, nephews etc. all working as a team to line their pockets as any good member of the Imperial Bureaucracy Loyal Party Members should. For the benefit of all mind.

    Especially for foreign investors in the US and the EU bribery and other classic ‘costs of doing business’ in an autocratic system can land the investor in jail and are something everyone’s sensitive too. Which wasn’t a problem until a number of high profile corruption busts in China has made the Chinese public sensitive to the issue as well.

  3. 3.

    cathyx

    Are you trying to make a joke? I don’t know chinese and I couldn’t click on the english version either.

  5. 5.

    JPL

    Bloomberg media has denied the NYTimes report so that should clear up any questions that you have about Bloomberg News. lol

    @cathyx: Try again because there’s a translation also.

  6. 6.

    gene108

    Sad if it is true. Bloomberg does solid business reporting, in my opinion, without getting into political weeds like CNBC or have a openly political slant like Forbes.

  8. 8.

    the Conster

    We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, dreadpiratemistermix. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, mistermix. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, mistermix, to see that perfect world in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

  10. 10.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    OT: Holy Fucking Shannon Sharpe. If you’re recording the CBS pregame show, go watch that this minute. But don’t worry, you’re going to be able to catch it on YouTube in about 5 minutes. He laid down the LAW on the Miami harassment situation.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    Bloomberg News pulling its journalistic punches so the Chinese government will spare the Bloomberg data terminal business is shameful. It cheapens the value of both Bloomberg products. It’s only going to encourage more extortion like this. I am no media tycoon; but if I were, this would take me a few more steps closer to deciding that staying in China wasn’t worth the revenue or the damage to Bloomberg’s journalistic reputation, which after all is what justifies the money it charges for the terminals. (Okay, thinking like this is probably one reason why I’m not a media tycoon.)

  15. 15.

    WereBear

    @eric: Yep. In the US, we get in a lot of trouble because our melting pot so often comes to a boil, but we are big and diverse enough to get a lot of different facets being applied to a problem.

    The Chinese are obsessed with top-down control. They are not known for innovation, but for reverse engineering. You get to a lot of places with brute force, but the Land of Creative Thinking is not one of them.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @WereBear:

    There was a time, long ago, when the Chinese were innovators, were creative. But such tendencies threated whoever held the Mandate of Heaven at the time, and those tendencies were dealt with. Severely.

  19. 19.

    Yatsuno

    @Amir Khalid: I’m guessing the talks between the Nationalists and the Communists aren’t going well. Usually Taiwanese media gets bolder when the Mainland shoots itself in the foot somehow. Reunification isn’t gonna be pretty.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid:

    There you go, thinking long term again.

    American business is obsessed with the current fiscal quarter. Anything beyond that is irrelevant. Short term profit for the win!

    When I am put into power, after the massacre of the Village, then we go after not the lawyers, but the MBAs.

  22. 22.

    Micheline

    OT but I needed to post this because I really doubt the Repubs’ sincerity

    GOP Now Wants to Fix Obamacare
    “Republicans have shifted their strategy on Obamacare,” The Hill reports.

    “Weeks ago, many Republicans said Obamacare — including Speaker John Boehner (OH) — was too broken to fix. But now, the GOP is drafting legislation that aims to do just that.”

    “The GOP wants to rebuild its political capital and public credibility by solving Obamacare’s implementation problems. This pivot comes after Republicans took major hits in polls following the government shutdown.

  27. 27.

    piratedan

    @Micheline: well there must be a surplus in the anvil industry because for the average american, that’s all the GOP has for you when you step out of the boat.

  29. 29.

    JPL

    @Steeplejack: Thanks. Fox Sports took a different approach. Jimmy Johnson questioned what the teams knew about Martin, indicating that it was Martin that caused them concern.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    @JPL:

    The NFL hazing thing seems to be out of control. I remember George Plimpton writing in Paper Lion a hundred years ago about relatively good-natured stuff in preseason training camp, but now apparently it has metastasized to season-long bullshit that includes rookies being forced to pay for multi-thousand-dollar dinners and even trips for veterans. That shit needs to stop.

  32. 32.

    BBA

    @Amir Khalid: People don’t buy Bloomberg terminals for the journalism, that’s all posted on the website for free. You buy a Bloomberg terminal if you need to compare historical yield curves for municipal bonds sold by water and sewer districts in Louisiana, or similarly obscure wonkery that’s either unavailable or really inconvenient from less expensive sources. This China censorship issue isn’t very relevant to their core business.

  34. 34.

    drkrick

    @Steeplejack: The “trips for veterans” thing seems to be a mistake. Martin’s $15K seems to have been for himself. When he tried to cancel, the payments had been made for hotels and so on and couldn’t be refunded. At least that’s the story coming out of Miami.

  35. 35.

    Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)

    @Micheline:

    Something needs to be done about people losing their preferred plans, though I doubt that the Republicans are the ones to do it. A good friend of mine who is a fellow Californian and an Obama supporter is very upset because his current (Kaiser) plan doesn’t qualify under the ACA and anything equivalent will cost him more.

    The ACA is not without flaws. Obama made a very rash, and unfounded, promise when he assured Americans that they would be able to keep their current plans if that was their preference. The Dems need to get on top of this soonest because it opens the gates to much Republican mischief.

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    Obamacare Approval

    [….] What I’m really interested in is what this chart will look like next May, or June, as we move into the stretch for the midterms. And here’s my prediction: the lines will have crossed, or be just about to cross, moving favorables over unfavorables for the first time. Why do I think so:

    *The web site will have been fixed (before Christmas) and it is very
    easy now to put your info in; to compare policy options; to see what (if any) subsidy support you are eligible for, and to sign up and buy
    insurance (although open enrollment is closed until October 1).

    *Enrollment was pretty much on target, greatly helped by the almost 2 million folks whose policies were cancelled and decided to buy new coverage on the Exchanges. Total enrollment is 6.8 million, with 2.5 million under 35.

    *The cancellation crisis is behind us. Of the 6 million people who
    lost coverage, 3 million renewed with their insurance companies
    directly; 2 million went to the Exchanges, and 1 million chose to pay
    the fine and skip insurance.

    *Large employers have continued to offer insurance to their
    employees, with almost no one pushing their workers out into the
    Exchanges. The Total number of people getting insurance at work has actually grown slightly, as more small employers, using ACA credits, are offering plans.

    *Overall healthcare costs are adding a 6th year to their record of
    cost moderation and premium increases (on exchange and off, both group and individual) have remained moderate.

    *There have been some pressure on doctors, especially in moderate income and poorer neighborhoods, as the medical system reacts to the surge of new patients from Medicaid and the Exchanges. But the system is adjusting. In some states, PAs’ and Nurse Practitioners are being granted new practice authority.[….]

    http://jimstuartnewblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/obamacare-approval.html

  39. 39.

    Steeplejack

    @drkrick:

    The story I read didn’t mention Martin specifically or $15,000 specifically in regard to rookies paying for veterans’ trips. It was a hand-wringing “locker room culture” overview piece and seemed to indicate—as I understood it—that the problem is more widespread than just Martin and just the Dolphins.

  41. 41.

    Yatsuno

    @Chris: Yes and no. Yes because many Taiwanese have very strong family ties with the mainland and even the cooling of hostilities hasn’t made that easier. Plus the mainland keeps travel very restricted to Taiwan so reversing that would help. But there is no way Taiwan gives up all their societal gains and relative freedom just to go under the yoke of the CCP. So it’s complicated, mostly because Taiwan would not accept a Hong Kong type deal either.

  43. 43.

    Yatsuno

    @Lurking Canadian: This is, in fact, exactly what is happening. Health insurance policies change constantly for a variety of reasons, only some of which are actuarial. But now they have an easy scapegoat to blame the changes on while attempting to sucker in those being forced to change. I’m only lucky because I happen to be a fed and the FEHBP keeps things very much on the up and up.

  45. 45.

    David Brooks (not that one)

    I don’t think anyone’s written about the decision of Bloomberg News to spike stories critical of the Chinese government

    Jim Fallows (who counts as an experienced China hand) has, but only on his blog (the news is “important and bad”).

  46. 46.

    ezra abrams

    Jesus H Christ, what are you people, like sheltered 19 year olds from podunk, shaking the hayseeds out of your hair ?
    I mean, is this any different then ……
    Almost by definition, anyone who thinks themselves knowledgeable about current affairs should be able to come up with many examples…how on earth can anyone pretend to be surprised when a corporation abandons its basic principles for money ????????

    the chinese century is here…rewind, the japanese century is here…

    the real story is why firms pay so much for bloomberg terminals, and why no competitors exist

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