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Bloomberg spiked stories critical of China, threatened whistleblower w/ lawsuit

theintercept.com When Bloomberg News’s Reporting on...
Rose forum
  02/18/20
...
Rose forum
  02/18/20
The ruling class in America will sell us out to China piece ...
pearly sadistic theater hominid
  02/18/20
Just look at Hollywood releases. They've already started
Emerald prole
  02/18/20
...
vengeful pit love of her life
  02/18/20
he'll never be the dem nominee now and lose to trump in a la...
buck-toothed misunderstood temple
  02/18/20
Someone poasted in another thread about how Bloomberg would ...
Rose forum
  02/18/20
Michael “The Manchurian Candidate” Bloomberg
Vigorous depressive
  02/18/20
The degree to which Bloomberg is beholden to chinks is a gre...
mildly autistic stead masturbator
  02/18/20
http://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447776&mc=3&...
Appetizing Kink-friendly Internal Respiration
  02/18/20
...
Rose forum
  02/18/20
Trump is showing tremendous weakness towards China over this...
hyperventilating psychic cruise ship
  02/18/20
lol
hairraiser church
  02/18/20
*US corporations that rely on China
pearly sadistic theater hominid
  02/18/20
Summon who cares tp
mildly autistic stead masturbator
  02/18/20
Holy shit Trump really fucking sucks goat dick and I’m...
excitant space
  02/18/20
I'm as pro-Trump as anyone but we should have banned all fli...
hyperventilating psychic cruise ship
  02/18/20
...
Pungent hall antidepressant drug
  02/18/20
two sides to every story what's interesting about this stor...
Diverse lay faggotry
  02/18/20
I read the whole article. It’s obviously a hit piece. ...
mildly autistic stead masturbator
  02/18/20
I’d bet something like 1/4 of his revs are China/HK
Rose forum
  02/18/20
not even close. Remember that the Terminal is a subscript...
pearly sadistic theater hominid
  02/18/20
Why are you lecturing me on what a bloomberg terminal is? I ...
Rose forum
  02/18/20
they use knockoff "Broomberg" terminals at 1/6 the...
Metal private investor
  02/18/20
Eirkon!
Rose forum
  02/18/20
there's 350,000 terminal subscriptions, probably 200k of tho...
pearly sadistic theater hominid
  02/18/20
... so 42% are outside of those cities? It might be 15%...
Rose forum
  02/18/20
Because I know it's not. I write about financial institution...
pearly sadistic theater hominid
  02/18/20
Well I hope he discloses the actual amount some day!
Rose forum
  02/18/20
If you were wildly curious you can always check BIO for a ro...
pearly sadistic theater hominid
  02/18/20
...
Rose forum
  02/18/20
...
hairless partner
  02/18/20


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 1:12 PM
Author: Rose forum

theintercept.com

When Bloomberg News’s Reporting on China Was Challenged, Bloomberg Tried to Ruin Me for Speaking Out

Leta Hong FincherLeta Hong FincherFebruary 18 2020, 11:18 a.m.

10-13 minutes

AP_20022776050490-bloomberg-1581903562

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at the winter meeting for the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22, 2020.

Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP

I am one of the many women Mike Bloomberg’s company tried to silence through nondisclosure agreements. The funny thing is, I never even worked for Bloomberg.

But my story shows the lengths that the Bloomberg machine will go to in order to avoid offending Beijing. Bloomberg’s company, Bloomberg LP, is so dependent on the vast China market for its business that its lawyers threatened to devastate my family financially if I didn’t sign an NDA silencing me about how Bloomberg News killed a story critical of Chinese Communist Party leaders. It was only when I hired Edward Snowden’s lawyers in Hong Kong that Bloomberg LP eventually called off their hounds after many attempts to intimidate me.

In 2012, I was working toward a Ph.D. in sociology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and my husband, Michael Forsythe, was a lead writer on a Bloomberg News article about the vast accumulation of wealth by relatives of Chinese President Xi Jinping, part of an award-winning “Revolution to Riches” series about Chinese leaders.

Soon after Bloomberg published the article on Xi’s family wealth in June 2012, my husband received death threats conveyed by a woman who told him she represented a relative of Xi. The woman conveying the threats specifically mentioned the danger to our whole family; our two children were 6 and 8 years old at the time. The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos reports a similar encounter in his award-winning book, “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China,” when the same woman told Osnos’s wife: “He [Forsythe] and his family can’t stay in China. It’s no longer safe,” she said. “Something will happen. It will look like an accident. Nobody will know what happened. He’ll just be found dead.”

The experience was especially terrifying because it came just months after the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, who was poisoned by the wife of a senior Chinese leader, Bo Xilai, according to Chinese state media. His body was reportedly discovered in a hotel in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing. While our family spent the kids’ summer vacation in 2012 outside of China, Bloomberg executives kept my husband busy in nonstop conference calls about how to maintain our security. I had recurring nightmares about my young children getting beaten up or killed. I desperately wanted to speak publicly about the death threats, feeling it would give us stronger protection, but Bloomberg News wanted us not to say anything about it while the company conducted its own internal investigation. I had been loyal to the company ever since my husband and I married in 2002, and I didn’t want to jeopardize his job. I stayed silent until October 26, 2012, when another (unrelated) story was published in defiance of the Chinese government. I decided to tweet that we had received death threats after the Bloomberg story on Xi Jinping.

Screen-Shot-2020-02-15-at-11.52.57-AM-1582039653

Screenshot: Leta Hong Fincher

Within hours of my tweets — the original and my replies to questions — a Bloomberg manager called my husband and said, “Get your wife to delete her tweets.” I did not delete them, but I also did not tweet or speak publicly about the death threats again. I did not want to anger the company because we needed it to relocate us to Hong Kong, where our children would be safe. As we finished the remainder of our time in Beijing, applying for schools in Hong Kong and preparing for our move, I lived in constant fear. Would someone get to our children while they were on their way to or from school? Who was watching and listening to us? I obsessively pulled down all our window blinds at night in case Chinese security agents were watching us. I was careful not to speak loudly about our plans in our home or on my phone in case we were bugged.

In August 2013, I finally relaxed as we flew out of Beijing and moved to a temporary apartment in Hong Kong. I thought that our yearlong nightmare had ended. But things would soon get even worse.

My husband had been working for many months on another investigative report for Bloomberg about financial ties between one of China’s richest men, Wang Jianlin, and the families of senior Communist Party officials, including relatives of Xi. Bloomberg editors had thus far backed the story. A Bloomberg managing editor, Jonathan Kaufman, said in an email in late September 2013, “I am in awe of the way you tracked down and deciphered the financial holdings and the players. … It’s a real revelation. Looking forward to pushing it up the line,” according to an account published by the Financial Times.

Then Bloomberg killed the story at the last minute, and the company fired my husband in November after comments by Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matt Winkler were leaked. “If we run the story, we’ll be kicked out of China,” Winkler reportedly said on a company call.

Mike Bloomberg, then New York City mayor and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, was asked on November 12, 2013, about reports that his company had self-censored out of fear of offending the Chinese government and he dismissed the question.

“Nobody thinks that we’re wusses and not willing to stand up and write stories that are of interest to the public and that are factually correct,” Bloomberg told a press conference.

Yet, days after Bloomberg made those comments to reporters in New York, Bloomberg lawyers in Hong Kong threatened to devastate my family financially by forcing us to repay the company for our relocation fees to Hong Kong from Beijing and the advance on my husband’s salary that we took out, leave us with no health insurance or income, and take me to court if I did not sign a nondisclosure agreement — even though I had never been a Bloomberg employee.

The law firm representing Bloomberg, Mayer Brown JSM, sent a letter to my lawyer on December 6, 2013, threatening a court injunction if I didn’t agree to their confidentiality terms within seven days.

I told my husband’s lawyer that I did not want to sign a gag order, so Bloomberg summoned me and my husband to a meeting on December 16 at Mayer Brown JSM’s office in central Hong Kong. We sat around a fancy conference table with some Bloomberg senior editors and Mayer Brown lawyers and spoke via videoconference with a lawyer from Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, representing Bloomberg in New York. My husband’s lawyer said that I did not possess any recordings or emails that might be damaging evidence about the company’s practices.

The thought of Bloomberg possibly ruining our family financially if I didn’t give in to their threats made me sick, but I was also infuriated that they had kept us in harm’s way.

“But what about all the evidence that is in her head?” said the outsized man on the video screen. When Bloomberg’s lawyer in New York uttered those words, I suddenly pictured him holding a giant vacuum cleaner, trying to suck all the memories out of my brain. I told everyone that I needed to leave the room and I walked out of the building, determined to go down fighting.

On December 20, they sent a letter to my husband demanding that I sign a nondisclosure agreement. If I didn’t agree, we might owe the company thousands of dollars. I might even have had to pay Bloomberg’s legal bills. The thought of Bloomberg possibly ruining our family financially if I didn’t give in to their threats made me sick, but I was also infuriated that they had kept us in harm’s way after we received threats, forbidden me from speaking publicly about the death threats we received in Beijing, and now were trying to take away my freedom of speech forever.

It was only when I hired Snowden’s lawyers in Hong Kong — Albert Ho and Jonathan Man offered me a low rate because it was a “good cause” — that Bloomberg finally backed off. In the meantime, they had sent me several more threatening letters. One letter from Mayer Brown JSM on January 8, 2014, spelled out that “by virtue of the knowledge that she retains (in her head) of our client’s [Bloomberg’s] Confidential Information she has an ongoing duty of confidentiality to our client.” They demanded that I sign away my right to speak out about things such as “unpublished drafts of an article prepared for our client; documents concerning our client’s newsgathering, editorial processes and editorial judgment …; any emails and other communications (including oral discussions) between and among our client’s employees concerning our client’s newsgathering editorial processes and editorial judgment.”

Ho, a veteran Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator and activist who has been assaulted twice over the years, told me that if Bloomberg didn’t back down, we could hold a press conference to shame them. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that and in February 2014, Bloomberg finally stopped sending me legal threats. I returned to Tsinghua University to finish my Ph.D. and published my first book about women in China. My husband joined the New York Times, re-reported the entire story on the Chinese businessman, Wang, which Bloomberg claimed was “not ready for publication,” and his story was published on the front page of the New York Times in late April 2015.

I never wanted to seek publicity about Bloomberg’s threatening behavior and was genuinely terrified of financial ruin, so in spite of preserving my freedom of speech, I have never written about my experience before. I am speaking out now because unlike so many other women, I am not bound by a nondisclosure agreement. Given the large number of women silenced by NDAs, it’s clear that there has been an environment of sexism at Bloomberg’s company. Bloomberg managers and lawyers treated me as though I were a piece of company property, an appendage of my husband, using intimidation and threats to try to bully me into submission. I agonized over whether to sign the NDA and I remember feeling physically suffocated, as though my mouth were stuffed with cotton balls. I haven’t met any of the other women, but I imagine that they, too, may have experienced the same terror of being threatened by a multibillion-dollar corporation, which could ruin their lives if they did not comply. Even now, I am nervous about the consequences of speaking out. But the more of us speak out, the stronger we are.

Leta Hong Fincher is a journalist and scholar who has won several awards for her reporting on China, including the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award. She is the author of “Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China” and “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China.” She is a supporter of the presidential campaign of Elizabeth Warren, and has both donated to her and volunteered for her.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39612778)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 1:43 PM
Author: Rose forum



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39612943)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 1:47 PM
Author: pearly sadistic theater hominid

The ruling class in America will sell us out to China piece by piece if allowed to. It's really the most sinister thing about them.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39612957)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 2:09 PM
Author: Emerald prole

Just look at Hollywood releases. They've already started

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613075)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:49 PM
Author: vengeful pit love of her life



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614997)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 1:48 PM
Author: buck-toothed misunderstood temple

he'll never be the dem nominee now and lose to trump in a landslide

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39612963)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 1:49 PM
Author: Rose forum

Someone poasted in another thread about how Bloomberg would be tough on China lmao

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39612975)



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Date: February 18th, 2020 1:54 PM
Author: Vigorous depressive

Michael “The Manchurian Candidate” Bloomberg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613004)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 2:04 PM
Author: mildly autistic stead masturbator

The degree to which Bloomberg is beholden to chinks is a great pwnage trump should use in the general

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613053)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 2:11 PM
Author: Appetizing Kink-friendly Internal Respiration

http://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447776&mc=3&forum_id=2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613082)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 4:23 PM
Author: Rose forum



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613643)



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Date: February 18th, 2020 4:26 PM
Author: hyperventilating psychic cruise ship

Trump is showing tremendous weakness towards China over this coronavirus thing.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613655)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 4:30 PM
Author: hairraiser church

lol

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613674)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 4:30 PM
Author: pearly sadistic theater hominid

*US corporations that rely on China

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613678)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 6:31 PM
Author: mildly autistic stead masturbator

Summon who cares tp

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614191)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 7:47 PM
Author: excitant space

Holy shit Trump really fucking sucks goat dick and I’m totally not going to vote for him now! You and your 27 other easily identifiable pumos hahave finally convinced me and all it took was years of insane spamming!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614615)



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Date: February 18th, 2020 7:57 PM
Author: hyperventilating psychic cruise ship

I'm as pro-Trump as anyone but we should have banned all flights from China on January 28 and Trump should have called out their fraud and lies like Tom Cotton.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614673)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 7:42 PM
Author: Pungent hall antidepressant drug



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614579)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 4:29 PM
Author: Diverse lay faggotry

two sides to every story

what's interesting about this story is that it appears there should be ample evidence to back up its veracity

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39613671)



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Date: February 18th, 2020 6:32 PM
Author: mildly autistic stead masturbator

I read the whole article. It’s obviously a hit piece.

But it helps highlight mini mikes worship of China

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614194)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 7:47 PM
Author: Rose forum

I’d bet something like 1/4 of his revs are China/HK

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614611)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:27 PM
Author: pearly sadistic theater hominid

not even close.

Remember that the Terminal is a subscription service. 90% of revenue is probably from legacy clients in NYC/London.

Could China be responsible 90% of total yoy growth? Sure, although SP is also a big driver no doubt.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614851)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:30 PM
Author: Rose forum

Why are you lecturing me on what a bloomberg terminal is? I literally sit in front of one all day

What does Bloomberg being a subscription service have to do with the fact that on a seat basis, HK plus China is likely a significant amount of seats and likely the highest area of growth, particularly given the financial services downsizing in NYC and London.

It's not like banks or HFs have been doin particularly gangbusters here in NYC the past few years

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614874)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:31 PM
Author: Metal private investor

they use knockoff "Broomberg" terminals at 1/6 the price

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614882)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:32 PM
Author: Rose forum

Eirkon!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614886)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:36 PM
Author: pearly sadistic theater hominid

there's 350,000 terminal subscriptions, probably 200k of those are based in or near NYC/London/Tokyo.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614916)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:41 PM
Author: Rose forum

... so 42% are outside of those cities?

It might be 15%. It might be 30%. I don't get why you're arguing so much against an estimate that ~25% of his revs come from HK and China

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614950)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:44 PM
Author: pearly sadistic theater hominid

Because I know it's not. I write about financial institutions for a living. I know how much the banks spend on terminals each year.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614966)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:45 PM
Author: Rose forum

Well I hope he discloses the actual amount some day!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614976)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:48 PM
Author: pearly sadistic theater hominid

If you were wildly curious you can always check BIO for a rough idea of how many Bloomberg Anywhere accounts people in China/HK have.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614991)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 6:29 PM
Author: Rose forum



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614182)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 18th, 2020 8:42 PM
Author: hairless partner



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4447804&forum_id=2#39614955)