Editorial: Why the U.S. Embraced the Jones Act a Century Ago

John, I know you guys posted this for a reason, but it’s got so many factual errors it’s making my head hurt just trying to read it… Trying hard not to go full sailor mouth on some of the comments on the FB post too, but wow… :confused:

http://gcaptain.com/why-the-us-embraced-the-jones-act-a-century-ago/

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I agree…this piece is utterly meaningless tripe who’s only value is as a wipe to clean a baby’s poopy butt. I too honestly wonder why gCaptain included it on their main page? Just because something comes from Bloomberg is not automatically high quality…case in point this offal!

so here is the question…how does a

Stephen Mihm, an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, is a contributor to Bloomberg View.

even manage to get to be published by Bloomberg writing about subjects he obviously knows nothing about? His research for this article must have involved 30minutes on Wikipedia! Why doesn’t Bloomberg have a fleet of freelance writers available each an expert in their field to produce these articles? Why isn’t gCaptain Bloomberg’s or Reuter’s go to source when it comes to matters maritime?

you are welcome to go “all sailor mouth” now

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I dropped the ball on this. Actually when I posted to FB I mentioned how we’ve had to refuse so many stories from our publishing partners because of false or misleading info about the Jones Act.

In this case I have since corrected the most blatant inaccuracy (that Jones Act applies to all ships calling in PR) and I noticed Bloomberg made a correction this morning.

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Thank you… that part had me frothing at the mouth a little bit. Then the comment storm took off on it too, and I knew that it was going to get shared and re-shared like that and I may have dealt a little harshly with a few unqualified/misinformed commenters on the posting… But…

I-REGRET-NOTHING

They deserved it. :smiley:

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@Mikey, Here’s a better editorial from Forbes for you:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2017/10/17/maritime-security-five-reasons-the-jones-act-is-a-bargain/#6a00d43b3d96

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By Stephen Mihm (Bloomberg View) — Repealing the so-called Jones Act, which is slowing desperately needed aid to Puerto Rico

The nonsense line that only U.S. ships can call to Puerto Rico has been edited but the fact that that claim was ever in there shows that this guy Mihm literally does not understand the first thing about the Jones act.

If Professor Mihm doesn’t even understand the most basic elements of the Jones Act how can he possibly know that it’s slowing down cargo delivery to Puerto Rico? Did he research this or it it just something he vaguely remembers reading somewhere?

Cargo can be discharged by non U.S. ships in Puerto Rico. Someone that wants to write an article for Bloomberg should understand this. This guy is an “associate professor of history at the University of Georgia”", if any of the article is to believed anyway.

The article says that the word cabotage "likely derived from French, meaning “to coast”. I think the professor is on safer ground here. This can be checked on Wikipedia and no harm, even if it’s wrong it will have nothing to do with actually moving cargo.

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