Newly announced Democratic presidential candidate, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaks ... [+]
Topline: The Trump campaign on Monday said it would bar Bloomberg News reporters from campaign events over the outlet’s decision to stop investigating Democratic candidates because the news organization’s owner, Michael Bloomberg, launched a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
- In a statement, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said that declining to investigate Democratic candidates while still investigating Trump amounted to the outlet openly announcing a bias against the president.
- Parscale said that the campaign will no longer give out press credentials to Bloomberg News reporters at events and rallies. But journalists can still attend events as members of the public.
- The chairwoman of the Republican party also said the organization would no longer accredit Bloomberg News reporters to cover its events.
- After Bloomberg announced he was running for president last week, Bloomberg News’ editor-in-chief, John Micklethwait, said its reporters would not investigate Bloomberg or his rivals.
- Investigating Bloomberg has traditionally been off limits for Bloomberg reporters. The billionaire and former New York City mayor said last year he doesn’t want his own company publishing negative stories about him, according to the New York Times. “I don’t want the reporters I’m paying to write a bad story about me. I don’t want them to be independent,” he said.
- The decision to not investigate other candidates was meant to keep Bloomberg’s coverage fair by treating all the Democratic candidates the same, but it drew backlash from reporters who thought it would stifle independent and in-depth coverage.
Chief critics: Micklethwait fired back at the notion that Bloomberg News’ approach is unfair: “The accusation of bias couldn’t be further from the truth. We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.” But others in media still found that notion troubling considering the no-investigation policy is still in place.
“Bloomberg News is full of talented, meticulous and fair-minded reporters who abhor the decision their bosses made. Mike Bloomberg made clear he wouldn't tolerate critical coverage from his own outlet, so the only choice was quit or execute his wishes,” tweeted Axios reporter Jonathan Swan.
CNN Senior Media Report Oliver Darcy pointed out that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, allows the news organization’s reporters to investigate him.
Crucial quote: “The decision by Bloomberg News to formalize preferential reporting policies is troubling and wrong. Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events,” Parscale said.
Key background: During the 2016 campaign, the Trump campaign also revoked the media credentials of other outlets, including the Washington Post and BuzzFeed News, over what he thought was unfair coverage of his campaign. Since he took office, Trump’s attacks on the media have become a cornerstone of his presidency as he has made clear his preferred outlet is Fox News.
Tangent: When Bloomberg was mulling a presidential run in 2016, Kathy Kiely resigned from her job as Bloomberg’s politics editor because she felt the outlet wouldn’t be able to cover him fairly.
