New York Times Shames Bloomberg for Climate “Silence”

Plus, Denzel Washington on God

An indication that a newspaper is really worked up about something is that it starts publishing articles about how other people or organizations haven’t spoken up about whatever that something is.

A recent example of this is the New York Times. Under the print headline “Billionaire Climate Champions Go Quiet,” the Times ran a photo of Michael Bloomberg and a cutline that said, “Michael R. Bloomberg, left, and Laurene Powell Jobs are moguls who have made big climate commitments, but they have not spoken out against President Trump’s moves to dismantle American climate policy.”

This is genuinely comical. First of all, Bloomberg owns an information and data company that has been hammering Trump on climate. “Trump Climate Data Purge Hurts Health and Wallets” is the headline over one Bloomberg column, by Mark Gongloff. Here’s a Bloomberg podcast with Leslie Kaufman, Climate Change Reporter for Bloomberg Green, headlined “Trump Aims a ‘Wrecking Ball’ at Climate Policy.”

And second, Bloomberg Philanthropies issued a press release saying that Bloomberg would step up to fill a money and information gap left by Trump pulling the U.S. out of a global agreement. The press release quoted a former EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy, saying, “Since the Trump administration has failed once again to meet the moment, Mike Bloomberg is showing what real leadership looks like.”

So it’s not even really accurate to say that Bloomberg has “not spoken out” or that he’s gone “quiet.” What more does the Times want him to do?

It’s like the Times will only be satisfied if Michael Bloomberg personally goes down to Washington and chains himself to the White House fence in front of television cameras, or launches a hunger strike, to protest Trump’s climate policies.