Bloomberg News clearly didn’t see any issue with celebrating foreign governments forcing businesses to adopt woke ESG standards while failing to mention that its own parent company is doing the same thing.
Bloomberg News celebrated the European Commission’s (EC) latest rollout of environmental, social and governance reporting requirements for European Union-based companies. Bloomberg News puffed in its July 31 article how the new woke standards constituted “a plan to address climate change and environmental degradation through increased transparency and market pressure.” While the piece gave ample space to voices complaining that the requirements were not stringent enough, it omitted a potential conflict of interest. The outlet conveniently neglected to disclose how its parent company, Bloomberg LP, was recently celebrating how it slapped draconian ESG scores on 5,500 companies in 2022.
The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics states that journalists should “[a]void conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.” Apparently that doesn’t apply to the propagandists at Bloomberg News who mindlessly promote their parent company’s leftist business interests without disclosing them to their readers. Ironically, Bloomberg News has its own editorial guidebook for journalists titled, “The Bloomberg Way: A Guide for Journalists.” What a joke.
Bloomberg’s activism goes beyond naming and shaming companies. The media company’s leftist billionaire owner and founder, Michael Bloomberg, has also claimed credit for closing 70% of American coal mines, preventing 34 new American natural gas projects, and pressuring three state governments to pass radical environmentalist policies. Bloomberg News didn’t bother mentioning this either.
The article cited complaints from activists like Eurosif Executive Director Aleksandra Palinska that outcries for tougher ESG standards in the EC’s proposal weren’t headed. “We regret that the investors’ calls to retain key ESG indicators as mandatory have not been heard,” Palinska whined.
Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks has referred to ESG as “The greatest threat to our freedoms in America today without question,” adding that giving out ESG scores is “incredibly dangerous, even in the corporate world, because then you're driving groupthink; you’ve destroyed the capital markets; you are bypassing our legislative process.” Back in May, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes testified before Congress concerning how ESG investing threatens American energy.
Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Associate Katrina White shed some light on how Bloomberg’s ESG scores translate into activist pressure, at a Bloomberg summit last year. Immediately after mentioning that investors will notice when companies fail to meet “interim targets” for environmental goals, White stated that her department “will be tracking” this type of information. She said, “We are going to be putting out research on this, and you know companies are increasingly going to see their stakeholders say, ‘You set this target. Where is the actual progress toward it? Um, where’s your clean energy procurement? Uh, where are your carbon offset retirements?’ Etc.”
Conservatives are under attack! Contact Bloomberg News at letters@bloomberg.net and demand the outlet disclose its parent company’s ESG interests in every ESG article it publishes from now on.
