Following Michael Bloomberg’s announcement of his entrance into the 2020 presidential campaign, Bloomberg News will suspend its editorial board while several of its members join the former New York City mayor on his campaign staff, according to an internal memo from Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.
In the memo, which was first published by Washington Post’s Paul Farhi, Micklethwait says that the editorial board was Bloomberg’s closest source of personal influence on his media company. While the op-ed section will continue to publish pieces from its columnists and guest writers, there will be no unsigned pieces from the editorial board while executive editors David Shipley and Tim O’Brien work on Bloomberg’s campaign.
Just in: Extraordinary statement from Bloomberg News Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait about Bloomberg’s coverage plans of Mike Bloomberg’s candidacy: Bloomberg Editorial board suspended, no “investigation” of Mike, his family or foundation: pic.twitter.com/afjsHDQg0d
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) November 24, 2019
“We will continue our tradition of not investigating Mike (or his family and foundation), and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries,” Micklethwait goes on to say. “If other credible journalistic institutions publish investigative or the other Democratic candidates, we will either publish those articles in full or summarize them for our readers.”
As for Donald Trump, Micklethwait says that it will continue to investigate the president’s administration and will only “reassess” its coverage if Bloomberg ends up becoming the Democratic nominee and goes on to face Trump. As a general rule, Micklethwait says Bloomberg News will follow the same standards it did when its owner ran for mayor: report but do not investigate. That rule has also been in effect with regards to Bloomberg News’ main competitors, Reuters and CNBC.
“We are not going to follow an exhaustive rulebook. That is partly because I believe that in journalism you ‘show’ your virtue, you don’t ‘tell’ it,” he wrote. “You prove your independence by what you write and broadcast, rather than by proclaiming the details in advance. And I am loath to tie our hands at this stage. We cannot predict every detail of the future: we will have to make some decisions on a case-by-case basis. But we can follow some basic principles, and we will make a few organizational changes.”