NYTimes Accuses Arbitration of Screwing the Troops

As the Times puts it:

Sergeant Beard had no redress in court: His lawsuit against the auto lender was thrown out because of a clause in his contract that forced any dispute into mandatory arbitration, a private system for resolving complaints where the courtroom rules of evidence do not apply. In the cloistered legal universe of mandatory arbitration, the companies sometimes pick the arbiters, and the results, which cannot be appealed, are almost never made public.

Strange that the article says "arbiter" rather than "arbitrator." More substantively, what would be the plus of evidence rules? What stops a party from making his or her arbitration award public? What example does the article give of "companies sometimes pick the arbiters"?