The announcement that Bloomberg News would refrain from investigating any of the 2020 Democrats after Michael Bloomberg announced his presidential bid was not well received.
Bloomberg launched his 2020 presidential bid Sunday morning. His announcement was followed by a statement from Bloomberg News Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait about how the outlet would cover the election, given that Bloomberg owns the company.
Micklethwait revealed that Bloomberg had a heavy hand in guiding the editorials for Bloomberg News and that several of the editorial board members would be taking a leave to join their boss’s campaign. The newsroom was also hit by Bloomberg’s announcement.
“We will continue our tradition of not investigating (and his family and foundation), and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries,” Micklethwait wrote. “We cannot treat Mike’s Democratic competitors different from him.”
Micklethwait claimed Bloomberg News would not hide negative coverage of its owner but would not do its own reporting. He also explained that the newsroom would continue to investigate President Trump, despite halting investigations into 2020 Democrats.
“For the moment, our [investigative] team will continue to investigate the Trump administration as the government of the day,” wrote Micklethwait. “If Mike is chosen as the Democratic presidential candidate (and Donald Trump emerges as the Republican one), we will reassess how we do that.”
He added, “No previous presidential candidate has owned a journalistic organization of this size.”
Micklethwait’s announcement was destroyed online, as many questioned the legitimacy of a newsroom that refuses to investigate one side of a presidential race.
This idea that Bloomberg News will investigate Trump but not Democrats seems… problematic https://t.co/Zc7k91u9qJ
— Blake News (@blakehounshell) November 24, 2019
This is absolutely indefensible journalistically.
You can’t have a media outlet that covers politics but has a policy of not investigating (which is another word for reporting) one or more candidates. https://t.co/MIY2s0bO72
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 24, 2019
The first (and possibly only) tangible result of Bloomberg’s candidacy: At a moment when the free press is under unprecedented siege, a news organization guts itself because of a billionaire’s whim. https://t.co/WEynQK1X1x
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) November 24, 2019
So telling all of the journalists to not perform their jobs is something we should be excited about? I don’t know. Seems ridiculous. Tie their hands so the truth can’t be told? Just report the campaign but don’t dig for info? Doesn’t info happen on the campaign?No. Ridiculous. https://t.co/Oi5KwzFBeW
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) November 24, 2019
Bloomberg, 77, has not shied away from admitting that he doesn’t want negative reporting about him in the newsroom he owns. Last year, he said, “I don’t want the reporters I’m paying to write a bad story about me. I don’t want them to be independent.”
The billionaire was the mayor of New York City for 12 years starting in 2002, prior to his presidential bid. He has an estimated net worth of $54 billion, which he earned largely on Wall Street. He is one of 18 Democrats currently in the presidential primary.
