Funds Cave to Google's Blind Eye at Censorship

Thompson's motion didn't even involve any risk to Google's business, as it was largely symbolic. Brin and Page still have most of the votes and they opposed the measure.

But support from the outside shareholders could still have been a vote heard round the world.

No wonder we are losing our freedoms. If we literally won't lift a finger to protect or advance them, what do we expect?

Imagine if Thompson had submitted a motion demanding a company take all legal means to fight, say, racism. It would have been waved through. Management would have apologized for not introducing its own motion first. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would have been an all-media phenomenon. Combating racial discrimination has become, rightly, a national value.

Freedom of speech? Meh.

These fund managers are taking a gamble that American investors don't care either. And they are probably right. How many of these managers will get any pressure from their own investors? How many people will move their cash to another mutual fund in anger?

Don't wait up.

But let's ring the bell for the handful who did the right thing at Google.

Like Will Danoff, Harry Lange and other managers at Boston-based Fidelity Investments. Danoff, at (FCNTX Quote)Contrafund (FCNTX), and Lange, at (FMAGX Quote)Magellan (FMAGX), are among the biggest outside investors in Google.

They didn't vote with Thompson, but at least they refused to support Google's management either. They abstained. Among the others who did the same were managers at Oppenheimer and Janus Funds.