Bloomberg News will change election coverage after former mayor dropped out of race

“Now that Mike has said he is leaving the race for President, we will return to our normal coverage of the election; we will follow exactly the same coverage rules for the Democratic presidential candidates and President Donald Trump,” read a memo from Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait to Bloomberg editorial and research staff, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner.

“We will disclose Mike’s financial support for other Democrats — just as we have always done where his financial support for political causes is relevant to our reporting,” he added.

When the billionaire entered the race last November, Micklethwait explained the changes in their coverage as a result of his candidacy in a statement.

“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 Bloomberg but added that it would also not do its investigative reporting into him or the other Democratic candidates. He also explained that the newsroom would continue to investigate Trump, however.

“What it means for the newsroom is relief,” says Kyle Pope, the editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journalism Review, told Forbes. “The newsroom had been able to keep on solidly reporting on the primaries even as Bloomberg himself was running. But that was only going to get more and more difficult.”

Weeks after entering the presidential race, Bloomberg said the reporters in his newsroom who are critical of the policy, “just have to learn to live with some things. They get a paycheck. But with your paycheck comes some restrictions and responsibilities.”