Bloomberg Opinion’s Executive Editor could not resist sneering at a faith-based investor over his opposition to woke environmental, social and governance standards during a June 6 podcast.
Bloomberg Opinion Senior Executive Editor Timothy O'Brien and Bloomberg ESG Reporter Saijel Kishan discussed the case of faith-based investor Robert Netzly on the Crash Course podcast. Bloomberg News’ parent company — Bloomberg L.P. — recently promoted a woke pressure campaign to compel companies to adopt ESG standards.
Neither O’Brien and Kishan disclosed that potential conflict of interest when blasting Netzly. O’Brien condescendingly lectured Netzly — who is involved in promoting a Biblical opposition to woke ESG — on how to be a better Christian.
With all the gross smugness of a Will McAvoy, O’Brien pontificated: “and especially from someone who says they’re a Christian. If you accept that you sort of — a basic tenet of Christianity is love and forgiveness, who is he really forgiving?” He continued his browbeating: “Who does he really love when he’s working through where he is going to invest and then the criticisms he has of other people for making exactly the same choice as he does?”
If no one else has told O’Brien, Christianity doesn’t come with a prerequisite that mandates people embrace the leftist political agendas that undergird ESG.
O’Brien also could not help interrupting Kishan to smear Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, accusing faith-based corporations and Netzly of hypocrisy. O’Brien said, “But I also think there’s some hypocrisy and contradictions going on here that are worth exploring. He’s asking companies like Nike, for example, to be neutral and to not put values in front of their product line for example, or to not put values ahead of their sponsorships,” O’Brien added. Daily Wire reporter Spencer Lindquist reported that a leaked email showed that Nike in particular “will host a talk with a child sex-change surgeon to celebrate pride month,” something O’Brien failed to mention while rushing to act like a white knight for Nike.
He continued: “[Y]et then he’s turning around and saying Chick-fil-A or Hobby Lobby is doing the right thing by restricting certain people from its premises or from its product line and that just feels to me like a deep contradiction,” O’Brien absurdly suggested without showing any evidence that either company had banned LGBT people from entering their stores and buying from them.
O’Brien later chose to misrepresent ESG as its polar opposite, suggesting that ESG prevents discrimination rather than causes it. O’Brien added, “I think there’s definitely a social consensus that people should not be discriminated against for leadership positions in politics or corporate America simply because they are a woman or because they are a person of color or have a different ethnic background.” But financial “discrimination” is exactly what ESG promotes.
Later in the interview, Kishan made the stunning admission that she was surprised to find opposition to ESG in the United States, as if ESG-obsessed asset managers waging a political war against cheap energy, popular food sources and companies that oppose radical gender ideology theory and woke culture wasn’t controversial. According to Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks in an exclusive interview with MRC Business, ESG standards presented “the greatest threat to our freedoms in America today without question.” As Oaks pointed out, “[w]hat makes ESG different is that it engages with companies and engages with the market to drive a political agenda.”
Conservatives are under attack! Contact Bloomberg News at letters@bloomberg.net and demand it ceases pushing ESG on companies and Americans.
