The union representing Bloomberg Industry Group released a scathing condemnation of the decision by Bloomberg News’s editorial team to scale back 2020 reporting on Democratic candidates after its owner, Michael Bloomberg, entered the race.
Bloomberg launched his 2020 presidential bid on Sunday, which prompting Bloomberg News to announce a new plan for covering the election. Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait revealed that several members of the editorial team would be joining their boss’s campaign and that the agency’s reporters would no longer be investigating any of the 2020 Democrats, including Bloomberg. They would, however, continue to investigate President Trump and his re-election campaign.
Bloomberg News’s union pushed back on the decision on Monday and demanded that reporters be allowed to cover the campaign. It accused the editorial team of “silencing journalists” and urged them to reconsider.
“We are extremely alarmed by management’s decision to silence the journalists we represent at Bloomberg Industry Group, as well as the unrepresented journalists at Bloomberg News,” the Guild at Bloomberg Industry Group wrote. “Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth and as journalists, we must maintain an independence from those we cover.”
It added: “The Guild believes journalists should not only be allowed — but encouraged — to thoroughly cover every single candidate as the profession demands in one of the most important elections in modern history.”
Our statement regarding #Bloomberg’s editorial decision not to investigate Democratic Presidential candidates@business @BBGIndustry @BLaw @environment @BGOV @tax pic.twitter.com/BZcSU3mdNB
— Guild at Bloomberg Industry Group (@GuildatBIG) November 26, 2019
The union demanded that the editorial team rescind its decision and allow its reporters to “serve as an independent monitor of power,” even though Bloomberg is running in the same race.
Bloomberg, 78, is the latest Democrat to enter the presidential primary. The former New York City mayor is one of 18 Democrats remaining in the race.
UDATE: In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Cesca Antonelli, Bloomberg Industry Group’s editor-in-chief said, “For nine decades, our subscribers have relied on us to cover the policy implications of elections at the state and national level – and that’s our plan for 2020. As we planned long before Mike entered the race, our focus will be principally on the key congressional and gubernatorial races impacting legal, tax, and government professionals.”
