Bloomberg News Is Said to Curb Articles That Might Anger China

Re:Bloomberg News Is Said to Curb Articles That Might Anger ... by grey-area on Saturday November 09, 2013 @03:15AM (#6701065)

If you think this is unacceptable, consider that the nytimes, where this story was published, has also held back or failed to publish articles critical of the US on multiple occasions in the recent past - wiretapping under bush, Iraq war, torture, wikileaks. That's not to say they are a propaganda organ or always toe the line, but they have killed a significant story just like this (phone tapping) because of US pressure, and they are one of the more critical US news outlets.

I don't think we should make this into a battle between East and West, as the nytimes has framed it here, it is a battle between corporate and state interests and those they govern, over who owns the news, which to a large extent defines the limits of our thought. That happens in every country, and with every sufficiently influential news org.

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Re:Bloomberg News Is Said to Curb Articles That Might Anger ... by fauigerzigerk on Saturday November 09, 2013 @03:37AM (#6701105)

These things are always a matter of degree and subjective judgement. I have made up my mind. Systematically preventing criticism of a ruling elite that has no democratic legitimacy whatsoever is on a different scale than what happens in the US or Europe (which is bad enough).

I'm not in favor of a large scale trade war or boycott. But in this very specific instance, where one company - Google - has been thrown out of China for taking a stand, and another company with global ambitions benefits from it, I think blocking the latter is not disproportionate.

(I'm not in any way affiliated with Google. In fact, Google is one of my main competitors)

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