Bloomberg News won’t investigate Bloomberg the man, or the Democratic presidential race candidates as a whole, now that Michael Bloomberg has entered the race.
“There is no point in trying to claim that covering this presidential campaign will be easy for a newsroom that has built up its reputation for independence in part by not writing about ourselves (and very rarely about our direct competitors). No previous presidential candidate has owned a journalistic organization of this size.” Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait told staff.
He also said, according to CNBC:
“We will continue our tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries. We cannot treat Mike’s democratic competitors differently from him.”
That said, it will report on his and other campaigns, just not with investigations, and it will publish polls and interviews, according to CNBC. Bloomberg News will investigate Donald Trump’s administration, though. Bloomberg News will also publish summaries or articles by other news outlets that investigate the Democratic candidates.
Bloomberg is also suspending its editorial board and will not publish unsigned editorials, but will run op-eds and columns. Two Bloomberg Opinion executive editors, David Shipley and Tim O’Brien, are on leave from Bloomberg Opinion to work on Bloomberg’s campaign, CNN noted.
The Guardian published criticism of the policy.
iMediaEthics has written to Bloomberg.