Asian Americans Climb the Corporate Ladder, But Only So High - Bloomberg

Asian Americans Climb the Corporate Ladder, But Only So High

By Laura Colby

November 22, 2017

Asians make up 12% of U.S. professionals, 5% of executives

A challenge to typical corporate diversity initiatives

In the U.S., people whose family origins trace to a vast swath of the globe are lumped under the demographic category of “Asian.” Members of the group don’t have much in common, with one exception: They tend to be notably absent at the highest levels of corporate America.

Across America’s big corporations, Asian Americans get hired at a much higher rate than their proportion of the general U.S. population, which is about 6 percent. The group makes up more than 20 percent of the student body at some of the elite colleges and universities that shoot graduates up the corporate ladder -- and a recent lawsuit suggests that percentage could be a lot higher.

And yet Asians are hardly promoted at the same speed as their white colleagues. “We are the most successful minority,” said Buck Gee, a retired Cisco Systems Inc. vice president and co-author of a new report about Asian leaders in the technology industry for the nonprofit Ascend Leadership. But when the lens turns to C-suites and upper management, “we’re the least successful minority.”

Asians held 47 percent of professional jobs in Silicon Valley tech companies in 2015, slightly more than white people, according to Equal Opportunity Commission data analyzed by Ascend. But at top levels, Asians were far outnumbered, holding 25 percent of executive positions, compared with nearly 70 percent held by white people.

In U.S. private companies, Asians make up 12 percent of professionals and 5 percent of executives, according to EEOC data.

In finance, the numbers tell a similar story. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is typical: a quarter of professional employees are Asian, but fewer than 11 percent of executives and less than 1 percent of the management committee are.

Leslie Shribman, a spokeswoman for Goldman, said the company’s success depends on attracting diverse employees and pointed to programs that support Asians, including one designed to “develop the next generation” of Asian leaders. Representatives of other financial institutions also said they were keen on increasing Asian numbers; Citigroup Inc. spokeswoman Elizabeth Kelly said the bank had recently revamped its diversity strategy to recruit and develop more Asians and members of other underrepresented groups.

The absence of Asians in senior leadership poses a challenge to advocates for racial and ethnic diversity within big corporations. The lack of black people and Latinos in upper-level jobs is often described as “a pipeline problem” -- a lack of diversity in the junior or mid-level positions -- and in response, some companies have increased their recruiting efforts with black and Latino college graduates.

There are lots of Asian people in professional and middle management roles, says Jane Hyun, a diversity consultant who coined the term bamboo ceiling. Because of their success in getting hired, she added, “Asians were missing from the whole diversity conversation.”

‘Very Skewed’

Ellen Pao, who is perhaps best known for her gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, said racial bias was prevalent in Silicon Valley too. In her recent book, “Reset: My Fight For Inclusion and Lasting Change,” she writes that her boss in Silicon Valley often confused her with another Asian woman who had previously held her job. She also frequently heard jokes and ethnic stereotypes about Asians.

There are more than a few Asian Americans running big companies. They include Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella; Sundar Pichai at Google Inc.; Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Ajit Jain, the head of reinsurance; and Citigroup’s chief risk officer, Brad Hu.

Success stories can make the imbalance seem less severe than it is, said Laura Huang, an assistant professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania. “If we look at ratios in the population versus top management, it’s very skewed -- it’s not proportionate.”

Stanford’s Answer

Ascend’s Gee and Wesley Hom, a retired IBM executive, worked with Stanford University develop a course to help Asian managers break through to the upper levels. Classes in the week-long, $12,600 program are drawn from the general executive curriculum at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

They also address behaviors that, Gee’s research shows, can slow a career and tend to be more common among people of Asian heritage, including deference to authority and an aversion to risk taking.

“My brothers and I were raised to not talk unless we were spoken to,” said Wes Chung, 40, who works as the chief of staff for IBM’s chief brand officer. “We were told to work hard and the results would come to you.” Chung took the Stanford class which, he said, helped him be more assertive about his ambition.

Encouraging people to assimilate can’t be the only solution, said Hyun, whose book “Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians” was published in 2005. “That’s putting the onus on one party. If nobody is meeting you part way, it becomes very stressful.”

Pao now runs an organization, Project Include, that advises companies on steps they can take to promote equitable treatment of all employees. “Putting it on the employee to change their behavior is not going to solve the problem,” she said. “This kind of solve-one-problem-at-a-time approach creates divisions among groups that should be working together.”

How the teachings of Islam could help us prevent more sexual abuse scandals - Independent

How the teachings of Islam could help us prevent more sexual abuse scandals

Harvey Weinstein is just another case of a powerful man abusing women because we live in a society that lets him get away with it, but we can change that

Qasim Rashid Sunday 15 October 2017

Weinstein is a symptom of the greater disease of arrogance, unaccountability and societal apathy

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If the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse revelations shocked you, then you’re dangerously ignorant to reality. According to RAINN, an American is assaulted every 98 seconds, one out of every six women will deal with rape or attempted rape in her lifetime, and 90 per cent of rape victims are women.

I’m a Muslim, and a civil rights lawyer with a special interest in advocating for women’s rights. My advocacy is informed not just by the law, but by strategies detailed in Islamic teachings and Prophet Muhammad’s example to pre-empt sexual abuse. Yes, the cancer of sexual abuse against women that we see in Christian majority America is just as prevalent in Muslim majority Pakistan, but also in Hindu majority India and state atheist China. This proves that men worldwide are failing in our responsibility to end sexual abuse and gender based violence.

Let’s start by understanding two facts. First, a woman’s attire, alcohol intake, marital status, and education level do not contribute to sexual abuse – abusive men do. Second, sexual abuse doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every level of society – social norms, media, and Government – is complicit in promoting the rape culture that perpetuates sexual abuse.

Social norms demonise a woman for speaking out, victim-blaming her by asking what she was wearing, whether she gave signals inviting abuse, or asking why she didn’t speak up sooner.

The media also advances rape culture by disregarding women and their voices. Why didn’t the allegations against Weinstein gain clout when Rose McGowan screamed them from the top of her lungs years ago? Why has society advanced people like Harvey Weinstein, Roger Aisles, Bill Cosby, Bill O’Reilly, and even our Commander in Chief to the pinnacle of success, despite the decades long testimony of sexual abuse and rape from dozens of women?

How can we rely on government when 97 per cent of rapists never see a day in prison, judges punish rape of an unconscious college woman with a measly three months in jail, award rapists with equal custody of the child born from a woman they raped, and the US Department of Education rolls back rules that protect women in college from sexual assault?

I'm an addict – and I know what Harvey Weinstein has isn't addiction

The fact is that states are not moral actors – people are. But when people let bad behavior go unchallenged we inch closer to societal anarchy. In truth, any expectation that we can simply pass a law to stop sexual abuse is foolish.

Despite laws in France that criminalise sexual harassment, an astounding 100 per cent of French Parisian women on public transit report sexual harassment. France’s proposed response is legislation to ban cat-calling. Such legislation, if passed, will also fail because state laws only punish the actor once the act is completed, they don’t prevent the act in the first place. This scenario plays out repeatedly worldwide, whether we’re discussing “revenge porn”, gender based violence, or sexual harassment in the workplace.

This is where Islamic teachings and Prophet Muhammad’s example provide a solution that no state truly can. And while there are people who don’t believe that sexual abuse is even a problem, some on the left will disagree that accountability to a higher power is a solution.

Myleene Klass describes how Harvey Weinstein offered her a sex contract in 2010 interview

This is a reasonable argument, in part, due to the hypocrisy of allegedly religious men like Congressman Tim Murphy, who condemns abortion and infidelity, yet was caught encouraging his mistress to have one, or former Indiana GOP chair Rick Halvorsen who was convicted of incest. Yes, Islam implores accountability to the creator, but rather than preach empty dogmatic theories, Islam instead prescribes a proven secular model.

In a recent internationally broadcast lecture given live before roughly 6,000 Muslim women, the Khalifa of Islam said, “Chapter four, verse two of the Holy Quran…clarifies that women were not created out of the body of a man or from his rib. Rather, the Quran testifies to the fact that men and women were created from a single soul and are of the same kind and species.”

Thus, the Quran 4:2 first establishes men and women as equal beings. Chapter 4:20 then forbids men from forcing a woman to act against her will, thereby ensuring women maintain autonomy and self-determination.

This verse also commands men to consort with women in kindness, forbidding men from so much as thinking ill of their wives. This preempts emotional and mental abuse. Chapter 4:35 furthermore prevents violence against women by forcing men to control themselves and never resort to physically harming women – preempting physical abuse.

The Quran further obliges men to provide for a woman’s every financial need, while holding that anything a woman earns is hers alone – preempting financial abuse. And when it comes to the Islamic concept of Hijab, it is men who are first commanded to never gawk at women, and instead guard their private parts and chastity, regardless of how women choose to dress – pre-empting sexual abuse.

I'm a Hollywood director. Here's what we must do to prevent more abuse

Prophet Muhammad himself illustrated this point. In a famous incident, a woman described as strikingly beautiful approached the Prophet to seek his guidance on some religious matters. The Prophet’s companion, Al Fadl, began to stare at her because of her beauty. Noting this, the Prophet Muhammad did not scold the woman for her attire, but instead, he “reached his hand backwards, catching Al Fadl’s chin, and turned his face to the other side so that he would not gaze at her”.

Accordingly, the Prophet Muhammad by example demonstrated that the burden of modesty, respect, and combating abuse of women rests on men. Indeed, men must take the lead in stopping such sexual abuse. After all, while the Quran obliges women to dress modestly as a covenant with God, Islam prescribes no punishment whatsoever for women who choose to dress otherwise.

On the contrary, on numerous occasions Prophet Muhammad punished an accused rapist on the testimony of the rape survivor alone. In this environment of gender equity, women in Islam rise to the rank of legal scholars, warriors, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists while lovingly embracing identities as mothers and housewives.

Weinstein is a symptom of the greater disease of arrogance, unaccountability, societal apathy, and from men who knew of the abuse but did nothing. Islam and Prophet Muhammad provide a practical solution.

Sexual abuse of women will markedly decrease when men stop abusing women and when men stop thinking that just because they haven’t personally abused women, they have no further obligations. According to Islam, every man is accountable to stop abuse of women—by their word and by their acts. Many abusers like Weinstein walk our streets, terrorizing our neighbors. Together, we can employ a proven Islamic model that will stop this madness, and re-invoke gender equity today in America, and the world.

Qasim Rashid is an attorney, author, and national spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. Follow him at @MuslimIQ

Uber failed to tell its users or regulators about a massive data breach that included the names, email addresses and phone numbers of some 57m passengers and drivers - Financial Times

22/11/2017

Uber failed to tell its users or regulators about a massive data breach that included the names, email addresses and phone numbers of some 57m passengers and drivers, the car-booking company admitted on Tuesday.

The New York Attorney General’s office said it had opened an investigation into the data breach, in a sign of the legal reckoning that Uber could face from regulators around the world over its handling of the incident.

Uber realised that its user information had been hacked in December 2016 but, instead of notifying regulators or the people affected, it paid $100,000 to the hackers to get them to destroy the stolen information, the company said.

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Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive, who took the helm at Uber in September, issued an apology and said he had started an investigation into the breach as soon as he learnt about it.

He also asked for the resignation of Joe Sullivan, its chief security officer, a former federal prosecutor and previously head of security at Facebook, who was one of the most senior executives at the company.

None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber chief executive

The news comes at a sensitive time for the company, as it works to finalise an investment deal from a SoftBank-led consortium that could be worth up to $10bn and to move on from a string of self-inflicted governance crises.

“None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Mr Khosrowshahi wrote in a statement. “While I can’t erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes. We are changing the way we do business,” he wrote.

The personal details of some 7m drivers — including driver’s licence numbers for some 600,000 US drivers — were affected by the breach, along with account details from about 50m passengers.

Uber said it had informed regulators around the world of the breach on Tuesday, as well as individually contacting the US drivers whose licence numbers had been taken. The company has not seen unusual activity on the accounts that were affected, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Although the data breach did not include information such as credit card numbers or trip histories, the fact that it was not disclosed sooner and that the hackers were paid off could present a legal headache for the company.

Katie Moussouris, founder of Luta Security, said that the law requires companies to report a breach in a “reasonable timeframe”.

“It is clear that Uber took about a year, which doesn’t seem like a reasonable timeframe,” she said. The Federal Trade Commission and EU regulators were likely to investigate the hack, she said. If the company covered up the hack, it could be criminally liable in the US, she said.

Uber’s payment to the hackers behind the attack is unusual, with few companies ever admitting to paying attackers because it could encourage more attacks in the future.

“A big part of the shock and disappointment comes from the fact that Uber appears to have paid hush-money to keep this under wraps for a full year,” said Kowsik Guruswamy, chief technology officer at Menlo Security.

The vast majority of cases where companies have paid hackers are when they have been hit with ransomware, which demands much smaller sums to unencrypt their data. Even in those cases, the Federal Bureau of Investigation advises against paying ransoms. The most high-profile example was when Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid a $17,000 ransom in bitcoin last year to hackers who seized control of the hospital’s computer systems.

Mr Khosrowshahi’s decision to publicly announce the data breach — during a holiday week as the US celebrates Thanksgiving — represents an effort by him to get skeletons out of the closet during the first months of his tenure.

One of his big recent hires was a new chief legal officer, Tony West, whose first day at Uber will be on Wednesday. The company has also engaged Matt Olsen, a cyber security expert, a former general counsel of the US National Security Agency, to advise on a restructuring of its security team following the revelations around the data breach.

Uber is already facing several federal legal probes in the US, and will go to trial next month in a lawsuit in which it is accused of stealing trade secrets related to self-driving car sensors, an accusation that Uber denies.

Congressman Bob Brady under FBI scrutiny in campaign finance probe - CBS News

By KATHRYN WATSON CBS NEWS November 21, 2017

Court docs: Congressman Bob Brady under FBI scrutiny in campaign finance probe

Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pennsylvania, is suspected of wrongdoing in the FBI's investigation into payments his campaign allegedly made to his opponent in 2012 to encourage him to drop out of the race, according to an approved search warrant application filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Two political consultants have already been charged in the campaign finance probe involving Brady's reelection campaign, but the recently unsealed search warrant application appears to be the first time Brady himself is mentioned as suspected of criminal wrongdoing in the probe. Federal prosecutors last month said Kenneth Smukler and Donald Jones planned a scheme for the Brady campaign to make an illicit $90,0000 campaign donation to Jimmie Moore, intended to pay down campaign debt.

Now, FBI special agent Jonathan Szeliga says in the search warrant application obtained by CBS News he has "probable cause to believe that Kenneth Smukler, Robert Brady, Donald "D.A." Jones, Jimmie Moore, and Carolyn Cavaness and others known and unknown have committed violations," involving conspiracy, false statements, and causing false campaign contribution reports, and violations related to limits on campaign contributions and expenditures. The search warrant is for all AOL accounts associated with Brady's email account, "bobcongress@aol.com," and Brady's email is listed as the target. The search warrant application is signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Carol Sandra Moore Wells.

Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University, first reported the existence of the search warrant request, and what it reveals about where the FBI stands in regards to Brady.

CBS News has reached out to Brady's office for comment. Brady's office directed CBS News to Brady's attorney, who, after reviewing the court documents, insisted Brady is not named as a target, and has never been listed as a target in the probe.

Brady is the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, and has been since 2007.

According to the special agent's claims in the search warrant application, "The investigation has uncovered evidence which indicates that Brady, Smuckler, and Jones utilized Smukler's and D.A. Jones' corporations to conceal payments from Brady's campaign to repay Moore campaign debts in exchange for Moore's agreements to withdraw from the 2012 Democratic primary race against Brady for U.S. Representative in Pennsylvania's 1st District. The evidence shows that these concealed payments were made for the purpose of removing Brady's primary opponent from the race and willfully undermining various provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) in the process."

"As discussed in detail below, these goals were accomplished by routing three payments totaling $90,000 from Brady's campaign through political consulting companies to the campaign manager for Moore's campaign, who used a portion of the funds to pay debts owned by the Moore campaign, keeping the remainder of the money for herself and Moore," the search warrant application continues.

Email Kathryn Watson at kathryn.watson@cbsinteractive.com.

Mugabe resigns: Zimbabwe celebrates end of an era - BBC News

Mugabe resigns: Zimbabwe celebrates end of an era

22/11/2017

Zimbabwe's day of celebration

Jubilant Zimbabweans have celebrated late into the night after Robert Mugabe resigned as president.

He held power for 37 years and once said "only God" could remove him.

His ally turned rival, former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is expected to return from neighbouring South Africa and could be appointed as the new president within hours.

Mr Mugabe's shock resignation came in the form of a letter read out by the speaker of parliament.

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Mugabe's long career in pictures

How Zimbabwe is celebrating

In it, Mr Mugabe - who had so far resisted pressure from the public, the army and his own party to step aside - said he was resigning to allow a smooth and peaceful transfer of power, and that his decision was voluntary.

The announcement abruptly halted an impeachment hearing that had begun against him on Tuesday.

'I'm so happy'

Lawmakers from the ruling party and opposition roared with glee, and spontaneous scenes of joy erupted in the streets with people dancing, singing, honking car horns and waving flags.

"I'm so happy, wonderful, feeling so much excited, this is the greatest moment for our country," Julian Mtukudzi told the AFP news agency.

"We have been having sleepless nights hoping and waiting and we are so happy. It's over and it's done."

Media captionActivist and political candidate Vimbaishe Musvaburi breaks down in tears of joy

Activist and political candidate Vimbaishe Musvaburi broke down in tears of joy speaking to the BBC.

"We are tired of this man, we are so glad he's gone. We don't want him anymore and yes, today, it's victory," she said.

Zimbabwe's next president

The ruling Zanu-PF party says former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa will succeed Mr Mugabe.

Mr Mnangagwa's sacking earlier this month triggered a political crisis.

It had been seen by many as an attempt to clear the way for Grace Mugabe to succeed her husband as leader and riled the military leadership, who stepped in and put Mr Mugabe under house arrest.

Emmerson Mnangagwa: The 'crocodile' who snapped back

The polarising Grace Mugabe

Mr Mugabe, 93, was until his resignation the world's oldest leader.

According to the constitution his successor should be the current Vice-President, Phelekezela Mphoko, a supporter of Grace Mugabe.

But a ZANU-PF official Larry Mavhima told Reuters Mr Mnangagwa is to return home for 11:30 GMT, where he is later expected to be sworn-in.

Presentational grey line

A city sings

Fergal Keane, BBC Africa editor, Harare

Driving through Harare, the cheers and the blaring of car horns signalled the end of the Mugabe era.

The man who dominated Zimbabwe for so long has already begun to fade into history here. It is a city singing with the noise of joy.

Exactly a week after the military first moved against President Mugabe, I was standing in parliament as legislators debated the motion to impeach him.

Suddenly, there was cheering.

An usher approached the speaker and handed him a letter. He stood to speak and we strained to hear his words. They were muffled but momentous. Robert Mugabe had resigned.

On the floor of the parliament I met jubilant MPs. Some danced. Celebrations spilled into the hallways and out into the street.

Presentational grey line

Notes of caution

Despite welcoming the news, Zimbabwean opposition and civil society figures have warned that the political culture needs to change.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told the BBC he hoped that Zimbabwe was on a "new trajectory" that would include free and fair elections.

He said Mr Mugabe should be allowed to "go and rest for his last days".

Media captionMorgan Tsvangirai told the BBC he hoped that Zimbabwe was on a "new trajectory"

Prominent Zimbabwean opposition politician David Coltart tweeted: "We have removed a tyrant but not yet a tyranny."

African Union president Alpha Conde said he was "truly delighted" by the news, but expressed regret at the way Mr Mugabe's rule has ended.

"It is a shame that he is leaving through the back door and that he is forsaken by the parliament," he said.

Presentational grey line

Robert Mugabe - Timeline of a political life

Grace and Robert Mugabe togetherImage copyrightAFP

Image caption

President Mugabe was accused of preparing the presidency for his wife Grace

1924: Born in Kutama

1964: Imprisoned by Rhodesian government

1980: Wins post-independence elections

1996: Marries Grace Marufu

2000: Loses referendum, pro-Mugabe militias invade white-owned farms and attack opposition supporters

2008: Comes second in first round of elections to Morgan Tsvangirai who pulls out of run-off amid nationwide attacks on his supporters

2009: Amid economic collapse, swears in Mr Tsvangirai as prime minister, who serves in uneasy government of national unity for four years

2017: Sacks long-time ally Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, paving the way for his wife Grace to succeed him. Army intervenes and forces him to step down

Google Is Filtering News for the Wrong Reason - Bloomberg

Google Is Filtering News for the Wrong Reason

If the standard is corporate safety, democracy has a problem.

By Leonid Bershidsky

November 22, 2017

We've known for a long time that Google makes content decisions, but recent moves in the direction of censorship are going too far. Unfortunately, it's hard to imagine a regulatory backlash given Google's victims: websites that no mainstream politician will defend.

Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google's parent company, Alphabet, told a conference on Monday the company was working to engineer RT and Sputnik, the Russian propaganda channels, out of the Google News aggregator. "We don’t want to ban the sites,” Schmidt said. "That’s not how we operate. I am strongly not in favor of censorship. I am very strongly in favor of ranking. It’s what we do."

Schmidt's words are a riff on an April post by Google Vice President of Engineering Ben Gomes, who teased changes to how Google searches for news. New instructions targeted "deceptive webpages" that look like news but seek to "manipulate users" with conspiracy theories, hoaxes and inaccurate information. "We’ve adjusted our signals to help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content," Gomes wrote.

I'm not going to claim RT and Sputnik are real news media (in fact, I've argued they're not). But do I want Google to "engineer it out" of news searches or the Google News aggregation service? Absolutely not, and I want my fringe and alternative websites, too, regardless of their political coloring.

I am, of course, a media professional. I know these sites are frequently wrong, and wrong on purpose. I know they push conspiracy theories and propaganda. But the spin they put on the news is immensely illuminating to my work. Last year, U.S. psychologist Robert Epstein published an article on Sputnik alleging Google's search suggestions were slanted toward candidate Hillary Clinton. In response, I wrote a column that voiced serious doubts about Epstein's evidence. That process -- an important one in democracies -- would've never played out had Google downgraded Sputnik and left me blind to the existence of Epstein's article.

Of course, it can be argued that the average news consumer shouldn't be fed the fakes and the spins because she lacks the time and the engagement necessary to filter through it all. But that's not really why Google censors the news through its ranking system.

Google is trying to minimize threats to its business, to avoid any kind of criticism that could lead to regulation. In the April post, Gomes referred to an incident from last December: Those asking Google “Did the Holocaust happen?” received a clear, embarrassing answer: no. Google wanted to make such situations less likely, Gomes wrote.

The same logic applies to its recent moves. Google decided to downgrade links to RT and Sputnik just as members of Congress investigate whether U.S. technology platforms helped facilitate a Russian disinformation campaign during the presidential election. Until the possibility of regulation arose, the company was fine with those links, even though RT's and Sputnik's content was always as pungent as it is today.

The bottom line is that Google will downgrade any kind of content that can cause a backlash against it. That's important to understand even if you don't want to see alt-right, alt-left, pro-Russian, pro-Iran or any other biased "news stories." What you do want can end up being censored, too, if Google's finely tuned corporate nose smells complications.

Sure, there are applications, such as Feedly, Nuzzel or Flipboard, that let you build your own news aggregator. But they're less convenient to use than Google News, which is attached to the Google function everyone uses -- search. Google is a monopoly that regulators have mostly allowed to bundle various products with the main one. If that were not the case, competitors might arise that offer different degrees of filtering and different ranking models. That would be bad for business and good for consumers, who are now stuck using Google's mainstream filter bubble. As someone who works in the mainstream media, I should probably welcome that -- but I'd rather have fair competition for the inquisitive reader's mind, and for traffic.