Bloomberg News Has A New Policy Governing Coverage Of 2020 Candidates — Do YOU Think It’s Fair?

Michael Bloomberg is the first person running for president that has his own media empire. What will coverage be like?

Micheal Bloomberg is rich. Very, very rich. Part of his wealth includes his very large media organization, Bloomberg News.

According to senior editor, John Micklethwait, Bloomberg News had an editorial “tradition” of not investigating owner Michael Bloomberg, his family, or his personal foundation. Now that he is running to become the Democratic nominee in 2020, how will the eponymous media organization’s coverage of the race be affected? Micklethwait sent a memo to staffers explaining just that.

“So Mike is running,” Micklethwait wrote. “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.”

Micklethwait said that Bloomberg had the most contact with the outlet through its opinion section, and its editorials have “reflected his views.” To that end, Micklethwait said the outlet will suspend its editorial board, “so there will be no unsigned editorials.”

“Our columnists, who produce the majority of Bloomberg Opinion’s content, will continue to speak for themselves,” Micklethwait said, “and we will continue to take some op-ed articles from outsiders (although not op-eds on the election).”
Source: CNN Business

In addition to the suspension of the opinion editorial board, some of the members of the Bloomberg News opinion team are going to take a leave of absence to work on Bloomberg’s campaign as staffers.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Micklethwait’s note also says that it will extend the same “tradition” of non-investigation to Bloomberg’s Democratic rivals in the primaries, but not to President Trump because he isn’t a “direct rival” to Bloomberg at the moment.

According to multiple reports, Bloomberg News editor in chief John Micklethwait informed staff in a memo that the outlet would continue “our tradition” of not investigating owner Michael Bloomberg, his family, or his personal foundation. But Mickelthwait also announced it would “extend the same policy to [Bloomberg’s] rivals in the Democratic primaries.” Reporters will still be allowed to investigate President Donald Trump so long as he is not a “direct rival” to Bloomberg’s presidential aspirations.

Source: Washington Free Beacon

Basically, Bloomberg News will handle things just like the other Media(D) organizations.

Oh, goody.

The question remains — in the very unlikely event that Bloomberg wins the nomination, will that “hands-off” investigation policy for political rivals change?

What do you think?